A Makueni mum has lost 25 kgs of weight in 10 months by replacing red meat with African eggplants in her diet.
According to a study in The Nigerian Journal of Pharmacy, eating African eggplants, more commonly called garden eggs or bitter tomatoes, for eight weeks decreased appetite and food intake leading to a 10.74 per cent reduction in weight amongst those considered to be obese. The scientists recommended using the fruit to prevent and manage being overweight and obese, conditions that affect 38 per cent of the world’s population– 2.6 billion people– and are expected to grow to half of the world’s population (3.42 billion people) by 2035. According to the WHO, being overweight increases the chances of heart disease and stroke, as well as getting diabetes, and some cancers.
Rita Nduta who is a self-described backyard farmer learned of the African eggplant’s weight loss virtues after she came across the fruit growing as a weed on her quarter-acre backyard vegetable farm in Wote, Makueni County. “Before I read up on its years of use for weight reduction and treatment of various diseases, I was looking to uproot it to make room for tamarillos as I had never seen that variety of eggplant on anyone’s plate,” Nduta said.
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She first harvested four kilograms of the fruit in December last year and stored them in her fridge. This was enough to make an entire week’s worth of African eggplant dishes. Nduta alternated between sauteing and eating the eggplants as a stew with rice or boiling them with cabbages, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and carrots.
“Other than my usual after-work walks, I did not perform any physical exercises and still went down in weight from 73 kg to 69 kg by the end of the week,” her voice beamed over the phone.
This gave her all the motivation she needed to stick to her weight loss journey. Despite not losing weight as radically as she did in the first week, she ramped up and stuck to her daily workouts as well as reducing her food intake which has seen her lose a further 21 kilograms. Today, the 5′ 2″ mom weighs a much healthier 48 kilograms.
After her trial of the fruit, Rita’s next step was to use eggplants as her substitute for red meat in her diet. This is because they have a meat-like feel when cooked and easily absorb the flavors they are cooked in once they are socked as they easily absorb stews. Today, she eats about two meals of fruit every day.
While they are low in protein compared to meat, they contain many other important nutrients for our bodies such as fiber, vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals.
Eggplants can also be prepared as part of the stew of other rich protein sources such as beans, peas, chicken, fish, groundnuts, mushrooms, and egg omelettes.
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To prepare the egg-shaped berries she chops and boils them in salted water for 10-15 minutes until they are squishy. In a pan, onions, garlic, and ginger are cooked until they are translucent before adding tomatoes bell peppers, and hot peppers. These are cooked for another five to seven minutes until the tomatoes are soft and the mixture thickens. The eggplants are then added to the sauce with spices such as paprika, salt, and pepper before letting them cook for another ten minutes while stirring occasionally to meld the flavors together.
After regrowing cuttings from the initial few wild eggplant shrubs she had, today, she has a row of the short fruit tree dotting her backyard from which she harvests the vegetable during the three to five-month period it produces fruits.