Page 35 - Barefoot guide

After they had dished up food for themselves, they sat down to eat. Garikai was so hungry and
tentatively tasted the food. He didn’t much like the garden leaves, but the Mutakura was quite delicious.
“This is what you need to eat, my boy, if you want to grow old and strong like me.” Great grandmother
chuckled. “Sekuru James, tell him about that book you read by the dentist…”
Sekuru James looked up and spoke.
“In the 1930s, when many people still ate traditional diets, a dentist wanted to find out how what
people ate affected the health of their teeth. He spent ten years of travelling to many parts of the world
- the mountains of Switzerland, the Amazon forests, the islands north of Scotland, the plains of East
Africa, the Polynesian islands, and the forests of West Africa. You know what? Everywhere he went he
found the same thing. Garikai, what do you think he discovered?” Garikai looked puzzled and looked
down at his food, hoping to find the answer there.
“He found that those who were eating their traditional diet never got rotten teeth! Their teeth and
mouths were a perfect shape. They were also in excellent health, with high resistance to diseases like
tuberculosis. But he also discovered that some people in these areas had changed their diets and were
eating modern food brought into their areas from outside. Foods like white flour, sugar, refined vegetable
oils and tinned goods. Many of these people had severe cases of tooth decay and were not in good
shape.” Garikai looked around with his mouth and eyes wide open.

They all laughed when Great Grandmother bared her own teeth. They were white and strong.
“You see,” she said, grinning. “Look how strong these teeth are.”

CHAPTER 4: AN AFRICAN CELEBRATION OF GOOD FOOD MEDICINE 27