What is the African diet like? I assume it is mostly a plant based whole food diet and low in fat. Or do they drink a lot of dairy from various animals? DR showed a meal from Uganda, steamed banana and rice dish, in one of his videos. One African man I know said they ate corn every day in his childhood. What are some of the traditional meals like in Africa?
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corn wheat etc in a ground meal form eating with hands or a spoon
big piles of yellow or brown mush : ) & banana & peanuts high carb low fat
They do not even have common language, religion or anything.
Like asking what the traditional greeting of a housepet to the man of the house might be, though there might be a dog, a fish, a hamster, bird and cat--the answer is: no such thing as traditional in this case.
Corn is definitely not "traditional", as it is native to the Americas, and was not discovered till a few centuries ago, and even 60 years ago was not considered "fit for human consumption" in most of the world, (I went to gradeschool in postwar Germany) even Europe considered it food for swine, not humans and refused to grow it for the US army when discovered that it was to be sold in the Army PX stores. Corn as edible grain in Africa is likely a welcomed recent nutritional source, in the last 50 years--that is a guess on my part, based on other facts in place.
Of course, tradition can be established in 1 year, depending on viewpoint, which would negate everything I just wrote. And some tribes would represent themselves as representative of the entire continent, even if they are only less than 1% of the population--saying that the others simply do not follow what God (or Gods) meant for the People Of Africa to eat. And we in America have religious groups with this same mindset, so it is not just an example of ignorance in primitive culture.
I have spent a lot of time in Africa over ten trips or so, so I am not guessing. Have spent time with Bedouin, Fundamentalist Muslim, Christian Egyptians and Jordanese (look at the map, Egypt is Northern Africa).
Why do you ask?
I am watching Esselstyn's lecture where he says that heart disease is virtually non-existent in rural China, Papua Highlanders, Central Africa and Tarahumara Indians. What does Central Africa here refers to? What countries and what kind of diet?
I think the common theme in these diets is low fat. John Robbins has a great book out detailing the various traditional diets of indigenous people called 'Healthy At 100'. http://www.johnrobbins.info/videos/healthy-at-100/
Thanks for your answer, that clears things up a lot. I was just wondering because some Africans who move to Europe adopt the Western diet and destroy their health. I thought they'd be better off eating what they used to before but I see now it's difficult to say as the African diet may have not been so good either.
I am not an expert on the traditional African diet. But I have a non-vegetarian book with African recipes.
Corn, millet, peanuts, some vegetables and legumes as well as tripe and fish are mentioned.
I would assume what people eat depends on the region and the income of people. Keep in mind that people in Europe did eat more plants and less meat, dairy and eggs a couple of decades and centuries ago.
According to a tv coverage I saw there are many places in Africa where they never had milk but drank their animals blood.
Hope that helped. Maybe somebody else is more knowledgeable about that topic.
I know in some parts of Africa monkey flesh is considered a delicacy.