Healthy living

•Nigerians urged to prioritise nourishment in food consumption

By Bianca Iboma -Emefu

A physiotherapist and nutrotherapist consultant, Dr. Olufemi Morgan, has urged Nigerians to pay greater attention to the nutritional value of what they consume, stressing that healthy living goes beyond simply eating. He  insisted in nourishing the body with nutrient-rich foods, adequate rest and healthier lifestyle choices.

He appealed to Nigerians to return to ancestral diets, clay pots and living water, as modern lifestyle fuels illness. He equally warned that many common foods, drinks and kitchen practices are silently driving nutrient deficiency, toxicity and chronic disease, urging families to abandon processed items and plastic containers in favour of traditional living foods and natural cookware.

Morgan said sickness stems primarily from two causes: nutrient deficiency and excess bacteria from toxicity: “Food is not what the body needs. The body needs nutrients.”

He contrasted “dead food” and “dead water” coloured flavoured drinks, sachet additives and heavily processed items with living alternatives such as ugwu, moringa, dates, sugar cane and plain hibiscus (zobo) without chemical sweeteners or preservatives. Moringa, he noted, supplies protein, fibre, calcium, potassium and magnesium in a single plant that many households already grow or ignore.

Nano-plastics contribute to cancer risk

Morgan was particularly critical of plastic bottled water and stainless-steel cookware. He claimed sun-heated plastics release nano-plastics into drinking water that can contribute to cancer risk, and said stainless pots gradually shed particles into food as they lighten with use. In contrast, he promoted clay pots and ceramic water containers, arguing that clay tenderises food faster, preserves nutrients and is consistent with ancestral practice. He sells such items and priced a 1.5-litre ceramic bottle at about N12,000, framing the cost as cheaper than treating preventable illness.

He also linked modern habits late-night phone use, inadequate rest and chemical-laden products to poorer pregnancy outcomes and slower recovery compared with previous generations who, he said, routinely bore large families without caesarean sections or major complications. Rest, gratitude and keeping phones out of the bedroom were presented as essential alongside diet.

Morgan closed with a call to “turn your kitchen into a pharmacist and your food into medicine,” echoing the maxim that those who fail to treat food as medicine will eventually treat medicine as food.

His message mixes practical traditional advice with strong commercial promotion of clay and ceramic products. While nutrient-dense local plants and reduced ultra-processed intake align with established public-health guidance, claims about nano-plastics from bottles, leaching from stainless steel, and specific disease causation remain subjects of ongoing scientific debate and should be weighed against broader evidence.

Embrace local foods

Emphasising that many people focus on eating without considering whether what they consume actually provides the nutrients required by the body.

“Food is anything you put into your mouth, either bad or good,” he said, stressing that the more important question should be whether such food is nourishing and helping to build the body.

He encouraged Nigerians to make greater use of locally available foods, including vegetables such as ugu, moringa, dates, sugar cane, oranges and hibiscus, which she described as nutrient-rich alternatives to highly processed foods and sugary drinks.

Nutritionist also advocated a return to some traditional food practices, including the use of clay pots and other natural materials in food preparation and storage.

Morgan argued that traditional practices could complement modern knowledge of nutrition, urging Nigerians to rediscover healthier indigenous approaches to food and wellbeing.

Beyond diet, she identified adequate rest as an important component of maintaining good health. She cautioned against excessive phone use, particularly at bedtime, saying people should create an environment that allows the body and mind to rest properly.

The nutrition consultant further advised people to pay attention to the quality of water they consume and to reduce unnecessary exposure to plastic containers, particularly where water is exposed to heat.

He said preventive health practices should be viewed as an investment rather than an expense, noting that the cost of managing illness could be considerably higher.

Morgan concluded with a call for Nigerians to make their kitchens centres of healthy living by choosing nutritious foods and adopting healthier methods of preparation. “Turn your kitchen to a pharmacist and turn your food to medicine,” he noted.