Okra: Health benefits and abuse

Okra: Health benefits and abuse

DR. SYLVESTER IKHISEMOJIE FROM PUNCH

This vegetable is used to adorn the soups of many homes across the country. However, many people have fallen into difficult economic times and there has been a decrease in the volume and frequency with which okra now appears in the menu of many homes. Without a doubt, the unit price has risen steadily over time. Secondly, the downturn in agricultural activities across the land due to insecurity and other challenges have led to a steady reduction in the availability of the product in many markets.

Traditionally, okra is made into a soup either alone or in combination with some other leafy vegetables like bitter leaf and ugwu. Sometimes, it is mixed with ogbono. In South-West Nigeria, it is frequently made in one of several ways which may be that it is mixed with a stew prepared differently or together as one soup. Either way, the presence of okra in accompaniment of our traditionally swallowed meals like eba, fufu, semo, amala and iyan is such that even our fore-fathers recognised its ability to regulate the gastrointestinal environment because it is able to block the adhesion to and colonisation of the walls of the stomach by Helicobacter pylori, thereby helping to combat the nuisance of that organism in causing peptic ulcers and gastritis. This way, okra helps to support the gastrointestinal system. It also contains mucilage, a slimy substance that helps to reduce irritation in the stomach especially, and in the intestinal tract as a whole.

Okra is also known as ladies’ fingers, and is a warm-season vegetable, popular in the southern parts of the United States, the Caribbean, South America and parts of Africa and the Middle East. In all these places, the pattern of preparation of okra differs widely.

In the paragraph above, we have described broadly how it forms an essential part of the diet among the various ethnic groups in Nigeria. In some other parts of the world, okra is chopped into small bits, boiled in a sauce and eaten as a dessert or an accessory to a main meal. It is essentially a pod of various sizes containing edible seeds which provide the body with iron, niacin, copper and vitamins A, C and B6. A diet that is rich in this and other similar vegetables and nuts can prevent the development of cardiovascular disease conditions, obesity, hypertension and diabetes. Therefore, this one, like other vegetables, is a healthy addition to diet, and as with other foods or nutrients, it is always good to take it in moderation as part of a varied kind of diet.

All about it is not necessarily good news, of course, as those who consume okra in excess are prone to the development of certain types of kidney stones because okra is rich in oxalates and they will cause oxalate stones in people who have previously had them. Further to the point is the fact that oxalates already form the bulk of all the stones in the urinary system. Taking an excess amount of okra only makes that development more likely.

Okra also contains polysaccharides and high fibre that assist in the slow absorption of carbohydrates. It binds toxic metabolites within the digestive system so that they are not reabsorbed. This happens because it has powerful detoxification properties. This has a protective effect against potential substances that can cause inflammatory bowel disease and gastroenteritis. By having this property, therefore, it protects the integrity of the entire system.

Okra slows the absorption of glucose from the intestinal tract and by so doing, has a profound effect in preventing the deterioration of the individual from a state of pre-diabetes to diabetes. It, therefore, also helps with the stabilisation of glycosylated haemoglobin, the A1c haemoglobin, which measures the average effectiveness of blood sugar control by a person in the previous three months. By doing all these, okra can help to reduce the speed with which weight is gained, or prevent it from happening in the first place. It helps to prevent insulin resistance in this way. The fibre it contains stabilises blood sugar by slowing the rate of absorption of sugar from the gastrointestinal system.

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