A book, the Ghanaian Diabetic Cookbook, which aims at addressing diet challenges faced by Ghanaians living with diabetes , has been launched. It seeks to present healthy diet options to encourage positive lifestyle choices to deal with this critical condition. With the lack of culturally relevant resources for Ghanaians living with diabetes, this book helps to solve that problem by providing a resource that is authentically Ghanaian and medically appropriate.
Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Insulin is the hormone that regulates blood glucose.
Hyperglycaemia, also called raised blood glucose or raised blood sugar, is a common effect of uncontrolled diabetes and over time leads to serious damage to many of the body’s systems, especially the nerves and blood vessels.
Nana Adwoa Eshun, Author, Ghanaian Diabetic Cookbook, said living with and managing diabetes, calls for changes in lifestyle with nutrition being of paramount importance.
Between 2000 and 2019, there was a 3% increase in age-standardized mortality rates from diabetes. In lower-middle-income countries, the mortality rate due to diabetes increased by 13%.
By contrast, the probability of dying from any one of the four main non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases or diabetes) between the ages of 30 and 70 decreased by 22% globally between 2000 and 2019.
“People diagnosed with diabetes are subject to drastic and sometimes unrealistic diet changes which cannot be sustained.” She intimated.
Ms. Eshun said that research, however has shown that managing diabetes calls for the eating of healthy well-balanced diets rather than eating unhealthy or empty calories leading to other health issues.
In her book, she said the country is blessed with many types of fruits and vegetables and this should form the basis of any healthy foods recommended for persons living with diabetes.
The Ghanaian Diabetic Cookbook, provides an answer to people living with diabetes on what they should eat. The book provides comprehensive and affordable dish options to persons who wants to eat healthy. This resource is detailed with readily available ingredients, prescribed meal times and carbohydrate counts for each recipe. The book also provides a number of tips and information that help the average Ghanaian living with diabetes achieve a happy and healthy lifestyle.
To help impact the diabetic community even more, at the launch of the book Miss Eshun donated 100 copies to the Diabetic Clinic of the Tema General Hospital to help share the insights and knowledge she compiled in her book. There was also a donation of 25 glucose meters and 500 test strips to the Diabetic Clinic of the Tema General Hospital to help aid less fortunate patients maintain a healthy lifestyle. This donation was made possible with the support of Sealand Shipping & Inland Services, a leading shipping and logistics company in Ghana. According to the Managing Director of Sealand Shipping & Inland Services, Mr. Richard Gaisie, this is a remarkable achievement by Nana Adwoa and the company is pleased to contribute to this initiative as part of its social responsibility to the community. In receiving the items on behalf of the hospital, Dr. Richard Anthony, the Director of the hospital, lauded the initiative and urged Nana Adwoa to make the books available to as many homes in Ghana as possible. Significantly, these efforts were made this November, the national diabetes awareness month with the aim to increase public knowledge on the disease and how to effectively manage the illness.
Nana Adwoa Eshun, a product of SOS-Hermann Gmeiner International College, enjoys community service, volunteerism and mentorship of young people among others. The book is available online at https://heyzine.com/flip-book/8b3e554aed.html#page/1
