10 Simple ways to lose weight with Nigerian Food

1. Eat less Carbohydrate
The typical Nigeria Diet is heavy on Carbohydrate, a sample daily food consumption might include: Yam for breakfast, Eba/garri for lunch and Rice for supper. Most food guides recommend 6-7 servings of grain products (Carbohydrate based) for adult female and 8 servings for adults male.
To put things in perspective, daily carbohydrate requirement for the average adult, based on a 2000Calories diet will be 300g/day. In food Lingo, 300g of carbohydrate will consist of: 2 slices of bread for breakfast (70g), 2 cups of garri (156g) for lunch and 11/2 cups of rice for supper (68g).

The body (through an elaborate process) store excess carbohydrate as FAT and continuous excess carbohydrate consumption result in increase weight gain. when trying to lose weight, it is extremely important to watch carbohydrate intake, consuming below the daily carbohydrate requirement means that your body will be forced to access stored energy (fat) which translates to weight loss.
Sample Heavy Carbohydrate Nigerian foods: Garri, yam, pounded yam, semovita, spaghetti, Rice, cornflakes, bread, cocoyam.

2. Consume less palm oil

Palm oil and palm kernel oil are high in calories and saturated fat, Click here for the nutrition profile of Palm oil. Due to the high fat and calories content in palm oil, avoid using Palm Oil when you don’t have to, and if you must, use only a small amount. Also look at ingredient list when purchasing pre cooked items (e.g plantain chips), most chip companies fry their sweet chips in palm oil, avoid these as much as possible.

3. Watch the salt (magi)

When we cook with packaged seasoning mixes, we introduce lots of salt into our diet. The typical seasoning like Maggi, Knorr, Adobo e.t.c contains high amount of salt in them, adding extra table salt to dishes that already contain these seasonings means salt overload.

Salt in itself has little to no calories, but Over-consumption of salt leads to temporary weight gain as it causes the body to retain water. Conversely, low consumption of salt will result in temporary weight loss as it causes the body to expel water. It is important to note that salt has no direct interaction with fat gain or fat loss, however excess water retention will make a person appear bigger than they actually are.

4. Watch What You Drink

We consume loads of excess calories from drinks, as we are more likely to pay more attention to what we eat than what we drink. Drinks are equally as important when it comes to weight loss. Pop (Soda/minerals) should be avoided all together. Some drinks that are perceived as Healthy drinks can also contribute to excess weight gain, a typical 300ml of malt drink for example contains 48g of Carbohydrate, this is the same as 1 cup of white rice. The point isn’t that you shouldn’t consume health drinks (malts and juices), but do not neglect the calories in these drinks when it comes to your daily diet.


5. Choose Meat Wisely

It is extremely difficult for Africans to ignore red meat; it is a staple in most soups and sauces. If you must eat red meat, make sure to trim off as much excess fat as possible. The recommended red meat option for dieter is goat meat; goat meat is comparable to beef in protein but contains 50% less calories and significantly less fat. See the chat below for meat comparison:

6. Oven bake and oven fry (avoid deep frying)

I am sure it’s a no brainier that we should avoid fried foods when trying to lose weight. Fried foods introduce high amounts of oil, calories and fat into our diet which makes it more difficult to lose weight. An alternative to frying is oven roasting and oven frying. With a fraction of the oil required for deep frying, oven frying helps to save a bundle of calories and fat.

7. Avoid high calorie snacks (Fan Yogo, gala, lacasera, chin chin, buns, Puff puff, plantain chips)
The typical snack on the Nigeria street contains >225 calories. When trying to lose weight, snacks are a diet sabotage. It’s extremely easy to consume high calories snack and ignore the calorie count. It is okay to indulge every now and again but do not underestimate the effect of small snacks and small chops on your diet. Carry healthy snacks in your purse, so you are not forced to buy unhealthy street snacks. High fibre snacks like granola bar will help you lose weight. I will do a post on homemade health bars that can be stored for weekly use.

8. Eat Spicy Foods

Hot peppers have been shown to raise your metabolism, but the real Benefit of peppery food is that they slow your eating. When you eat too fast, as many of us do, by the time your body signals it’s full, you’ve overeaten. Eating more slowly is a good weight-loss strategy, and making food spicier is an easy way to do it. Also spicy foods requires water; by increasing your water intake you feel full faster.

9. Eat More Fiber

Fibre helps you feel full sooner and stay full longer which means less snacking and binge eating. Foods that are high in fiber includes Beans and legumes.

10. WALK WALK WALK and exercise
This last point isn’t about food, but weight loss cannot be achieved with food alone. To lose weight, you must expense more energy than you consume and an easy way to expense energy is to exercise. Exercising doesn’t always require gym memberships; try home workout DVDs, walk for 30mins a day, go to the playground with your kids (or nieces and nephews) , join a sport league like soccer or volleyball, take the stairs. Any activity that elevates your heart rate for an extended period of time counts as a workout (all you married folks can get creative). It doesn’t really matter what exercise program you chose, you just have to be consistent.

Good Luck with your weight loss goals!!!

Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith Under Investigation By Child Services After Photo Of Daughter Goes Viral (REPORT)

RadarOnline is reporting that superstar couple Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are under investigation by the Los Angeles Department of Children & Family Services after a photo of their 13-year-old daughter, Willow, lying in bed with a 20-year-old friend went viral online earlier this month.

“The investigation was formally opened last week and is being taken very seriously by the department. Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have been extremely cooperative with officials. Of course, they aren’t happy that their parenting skills are under scrutiny, but they understand," a source told the website, adding that social workers will be speaking to Willow separately, as well as former Disney star Moises Arias, who was pictured with her in the photo.

The Huffington Post has reached out to both Smith and Pinkett Smith's reps for comment, but has yet to hear back at this time.

Meanwhile, the 42-year-old actress and matriarch of the family, brushed off the notion of any controversy after the photo of Willow sparked attention, telling TMZ's cameramen:

"Here's the deal: There was nothing sexual about that picture or that situation. You guys are projecting your trash onto it and you're acting like covert pedophiles, and that's not cool."

Will Smith has yet to make any comment regarding the photo, but viral photos seem to run in the family, as a photo of him helping a fan announce her pregnancy has exploded online.

Fibre-rich Foods are good for you

UNHEALTHY weight gain is the of poor food habits. But you can also use food to lose weight. Here
is a list of food which is high in fiber and can help you lose weight.
 Dietary fiber-rich foods swell up in stomach and reduce the felling of hunger.               

 Fibre are are capable of binding toxin, cholesterol and bile salts, and help the body to get rid of them.

Foods which contain a huge amount dietary fibre can slow down the digestion of carbohydrates in your intestines.

When soluble fibre is consumed, it get dissolved in water and transform into gel. This gel reduces and bind fats to lower cholesterol. Soluble fibre is also beneficial, as it also slows down the absorption of sugar, which can help manage and prevent diabeties mellitus.

Dietary fibre not  only  protect  our intestine but  also insulates them  from  cancer  by transporting  anti- oxidants  to the large intestine.  Fibre  binds up to 80  percent  of cancer-inhibiting antioxidants  polyphenols in fruit and vegetables,  thereby protecting  the antioxidants from early digestion  in the  stomach  and small intestine, the study  found.

Anneline Padayachee  at  the  university  of Queensland  and the Commonwealth  Scientific  and Industrial  research orgarnisation  found that  fiber acts  as an antioxidant  trafficker by safely
transporting antioxidant  nutrient to  the colon  where they provide  protection  against  cancer  like 
colon cancer.

Antioxidants  are  substances  that  may protect  your  cell  against the  effect of  of free  radicals-molecules  produced when  your  body  breakdown  food. They can damage cells,   and may play a
role in heart disease, cancer and  other diseases. 

SUSPENSION SAGA: Sanusi, Go To National Industrial Court - Judge

A Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain a suit filed by the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, challenging his suspension by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole held in his judgment that the matter was a labour and employment -related suit and therefore ordered that it be transferred to the National Industrial Court.
The judge held that, in line with Sections 251(1) and 254(c) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), the proper court where Sanusi ought to have instituted the suit was the NIC.
He directed that the case of Sanusi, whose tenure as the CBN governor officially expires on June 1, “be heard and determined with utmost urgency” by the NIC.
Justice Kolawole delivered a joint judgment in the substantive suit and the separate notices of preliminary objection filed by Jonathan and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, who were both the first and second defendants.
He struck out the name of the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, as the third defendant, holding that the case did not disclose any cause of action against the police IG.
The judge however said that the plaintiff had the liberty to challenge his judgment at the Court of Appeal.
He rejected the prayers of the defendants in their separate notices of preliminary objection to either dismiss or strike out the suit.
The judge, rather than granting the defendants’ prayer, made the order of transfer, relying on Order 56 Rule 3 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules, 2009 and section 24(3) of the NIC Act, 2006.
“In conclusion, the plaintiff’s case is hereby transferred to the National Industrial Court, subject to Section 24 (3) of the National Industrial Court Act 2006 and shall be heard and determined on the direction of its President in accordance with the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) as well as other relevant and enabling Acts as a matter of utmost urgency,” Justice Kolawole ruled.
The judge added that he deliberately refrained from deciding the substantive suit on its merit so as to be fair to the NIC, which he said was entitled to hear the matter afresh and to avoid making any pronouncements that could deny justice to any of the party at the NIC.
He said, “All the issues which I earlier pencilled down that I would have to resolve will now be shifted to the National Industrial Court.
“This is to ensure that the fundamental issue which the plaintiff’s case has thrown up can be resolved by the National Industrial Court.”
The judge held that only public officers whose tenure and appointment was specifically mentioned in the constitution could approach the Federal High Court for such judicial interpretation.
He held, “The plaintiff’s application is rooted in the CBN Act 2007 and not in the Constitution.
“In view of the conclusion which has been inevitably reached, the Federal High Court has no jurisdiction to entertain the case, causes and action of a plaintiff as an employee of a statutory body like CBN.”
Source: Punch

BORNO STATE: Governor Shettima Release N150 Million Over Missing Girls?

Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, on Tuesday said the initial doubt over the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls and the theory that the kidnap was staged managed by his government was as painful as the actual abduction.
He also said that the state government would spend N150m to rehabilitate the 53 students who escaped from their abductors and the parents of those still being held.
The governor said it was a sad tale that Nigeria pays more emphasis on politics than finding solutions to the nation’s problems.
Responding to the address of the Chairman of the Presidential Fact Finding Committee on the abduction of Chibok schoolgirls, Brig.-Gen. Ibrahim Sabo (retd.), Shettima said, “I didn’t create Boko Haram, I inherited it in 2011 when I was sworn-in amidst near complete breakdown of security in Maiduguri, the largest and most populated part of the state. But I normally say that a leader is elected or appointed to solve problems, it doesn’t matter whether the leader created the problem or not. A leader is elected to find solution, this is governance. There is a whole difference between politics and governance.
“In politics, you tell the general public and victims about a problem, you tell them the gravity of the problem; and with emphasis, you tell them who to blame for it. But in governance, you identify a problem and work hard to solve it. Unfortunately for us in this country, we all appear to lay more emphasis on politics than on governance. The Chibok incident, for me, has grossly exposed our weighty weakness as leaders in terms of assuming our shared responsibilities.
He lamented that a former Minister, Mrs. Kema Chikwe, came out to cast doubt over the abduction of these schoolgirls. “That woman completely disregarded the sensitivity of that issue, the pains of the agonising parents and our pains as a government, to whom, the parents of these girls, cry out in desperation and unimaginable confusion and anguish.
“Every other unreasonable Nigerian that came to adopt that view, only anchored the unfortunate view that was first expressed by Mrs Kema Chikwe. Doubt over that abduction pained me as much as the incident itself. Doubt over that abduction pained me far more than the childish theory that as a government, we staged that abduction in order to create basis to stop the extension of emergency rule in Borno.”
He said that theory did not make the slightest sense, saying, if a government did not want extension of emergency and chose to fake happenings, the state government would rather deny that the abduction ever took place.
The governor, said he had approved N150m for the rehabilitation of the 53 girls who escaped from the Boko Haram captivity and for the assistance of the traumatised parents daughters are still held in captivity.
Earlier Brig.-Gen. Sabo had assured the state government that the committee was ready to carry on with the task with absolute patriotism and fear of God.
He condoled with the people and government of Borno State who have been traumatized as a result of the loses that have resulted from the Boko Haram insurgency over time.
Source: Punch

N20 MILLION FRAUD: Mohammadu Buhari’s Son Arrested?

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have arrested Mr. Mohammed Buhari, an adopted son of a former Head of State, Gen. Mohammadu Buhari, for an alleged N20m scam.
A source at the EFCC said that the young Buhari obtained the said N20m from one Mrs. Nwokocha Florence to invest in an oil and gas business with a promise to make mouthwatering returns to the lady.
It was gathered that the adopted son of the former Head of State and presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change in the 2011 elections also promised to pay the lady 30 per cent annual interest on the N20m.
It was gathered that the relationship between the two turned sour when Buhari reneged on the agreement to pay the 30 per cent annual interest on the N20m to the investor said to have been introduced to him by his accounts officer at ECO Bank.

It was leant that once the money was transferred, Buhari cleaned out the account but never paid any interest to the woman.
The EFCC source said that Buhari claimed that he had some problems which emanated from his lost of the bank’s guarantee which he secured from a new generation bank.
He was said to have explained that the guarantee was cancelled because the bank felt that the branch from which he secured it lacked the competence to give it.
Investigation revealed that Buhari was still being held by the operatives investigating the case at the Lagos office of the EFCC as of the time of filing this report
When our correspondent contacted the Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, he confirmed the arrest but would not give any further details.
He said, “It is true but I don’t have the details.”

General Muhammadu Buhari has distanced himself from one “Mohammed Buhari” arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for scamming a woman, Mrs Florence Nwokocha, of N20 million in a ponzi scheme.
A statement issued by the General through Com Jasper Azuatalam, Chairman of the "Buhari Vanguard” stated that the tenuous link between the former head of state and the scammer in EFCC detention was aimed at smearing the general.
SaharaReporters had earlier published a report today concerning the detention of Mohammed Buhari by the EFCC, our sources within the agency claimed the detained Buhari claimed he was General Buhari's adopted son.
Read Full Disclaimer:
It is regrettable to note that after several unsuccessful attempts to smear the hard earned respect, popularity, dignity, and enviable image of Muhammadu Buhari, mischief makers have resorted to a laughable tactic of linking Muhammadu Buhari to a crime just because someone who has been alleged to have committed a crime somewhere bears the name “Buhari”.
Muhammadu Buhari wishes to state categorically that he does not have any adopted son called “Mohammed Buhari” and had no need to adopt a son at any time having been blessed with choice children, both male and females. Muhammadu Buhari and his family do not know the said “Mohammed Buhari” who is alleged to be involved in a #20M scam and is being held by EFCC.
Muhammadu Buhari is blessed with very descent and disciplined children who obviously took after their father. His children have no single record of stealing and an inordinate behavior anywhere in the world. They do not seek attention, but have proven the stuff their father is made of any time their character is put to test.
However, this is understandable, since the entire attempts by mischief makers to discredit Muhammadu Buhari as an individual has failed. We frown at these poorly articulated gimmicks to indirectly link Muhammadu Buhari and his family to a crime allegedly committed by someone unknown to him and his family just for the fact that the said suspect bears the name “Mohammed Buhari”.

DEADLY SEX: Female Banker, Lover Dead?

Tragedy struck at Eziudo autonomous community in Ezinihitte, Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State when a female banker, Mrs. Adejoke Ayeola of Iperu Remo in Ogun State and her lover, Mr. Wilson Ugwunna perished during lovemaking.
Wilson, 42, had two children while his lover, who was 44 years old, was a mother of two children. She was said to have been married to a traditional ruler in Ogun State.
But the medical director of Obizie People Medical Centre, where Wilson was rushed to for medical attention, Dr. Ohanyere Alex Chibuike, said the rumour about magun was baseless. He said the real cause of their deaths was the carbon monoxide they inhaled from a generating set throughout the night, explaining that he conducted tests on the deceased.
“I repeated the tests and there was nothing suggesting that any other damage was done to his body,’’ the medical director said.
He, however, said that members of the deceased’s family were yet to pay the hospital bill and collect his corpse for burial.
The lovers had returned from Lagos on Saturday, April 26, 2014 and went to bed, but were not seen throughout the following day, a development that drew the attention of Wilson’s family members.
Sunday Trust gathered that when the door to the room where the lovers slept was forced open, Adejoke’s body had started decomposing while her lover was in deep coma.
Speaking to our reporter, indigenes of Eziudo community, who expressed surprise at the incident, said they strongly believed it was caused by magun, a Yoruba charm usually set against a woman suspected of illicit affairs. The practice is common in Yorubaland.
The traditional ruler of Eziudo community, His Royal Majesty, Eze Desmond Oguguo, who confirmed the incident during an exclusive interview with our reporter in his palace, recalled that on Saturday, April 26, Wilson, who claimed to have returned from Malaysia, brought a Yoruba lady home from Lagos and introduced her as his future wife. This was despite the fact that he already had a wife and two children who he reportedly abandoned for at least three years. He described Wilson’s action as grossly shameful.
Eze Oguguo said the matter was reported to the police who deposited the woman’s corpse in the hospital mortuary while Wilson, who was still in coma, was taken to the hospital for medical attention, but he later died.
Also speaking to our reporter, a member of the community disclosed that the lady’s husband came and took her corpse to Yorubaland.
“Her eyes were bulging out of the sockets, her face was swollen, while her tongue was gushing out. She looked like a dragon,” he said, adding that he could not bear the sight of the lady when her body was being removed.
The late banker’s husband had reportedly said that the only condition for Wilson to live was if he could walk to the mortuary to see the woman’s corpse.
It was further gathered that the lady, who worked in a new generation bank, had lied to her husband that she was attending a meeting in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital while she went to Mbaise with her lover.
Speaking further, Eze Oguguo warned young men against anti-social activities, saying, “The way young people of these days behave is very embarrassing. They don’t respect themselves, they don’t respect anybody, and they don’t have the fear of God. They do whatever they like. They should be honest to themselves and live honest lives. It is quite unfortunate.”
It was learnt that Wilson’s children are currently staying with his mother in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
“Such boy is uncontrollable. Even his mother, who is in Owerri, has not visited home since the incident. If the boy had good manners, his mother would have rushed home,” the traditional ruler added.
The commissioner of police, Imo State command, Mr. Abdulmaheed Ali confirmed the incident.
Source: Daily Trust