SUMMARY
This study is an essay on the forgotten aspect of Benin Indigenous food, using a contemporary discuss to bring out the relevance of traditional food to body. The forgotten aspects of culture when documented will reveal the essence and discoveries done good and the bad ways of life as a people, and will help in improving where necessary. Besides, most of the forgotten aspects of the culture are hardly on record or documented. Therefore, writing about them will provide the opportunity to preserve them for future generations and will educate readers to appreciate the culture of other communities in Niger State, Nigeria.
Most of the foods that are prepared by Benin indigenous native way are very nutritious and healthy. By eating them one can be sure to stay physically fit, feel better, and be prevented from many illnesses. There are many healthy and nutritious Benin foods that are prepared in native or local way and native Ikpohu soup made of cotton wool seeds. Native Ikpohu soup made of cotton wool seeds is packed with so many essential nutrients that promote good health. It contains all the nutrients that meet the body’s daily nutritional needs. This dish is rich in vitamins and protein which helps to strengthen antibodies to work smoothly and fight diseases.
However, to some Benins they may not have forgotten the food types, but however, the ease and frequency with which they move around the world, and improvements in communications and the global marketing styles, places and images can lead to abandoning of cultural heritage, and it effect is total deviation. People are no longer confined to their cultural identity based upon the place in which they live, but can choose from a wide range of different identities. They now adopt clothes, ways of speaking, values, and lifestyles of any group of their choice and even food choices. According to the author adherence to the pristine purity and unadulterated cultural traits, values and virtues of peoples and places are not the same. It is rapidly constant in the urban setups, while the plague of cultural values erosion is somewhat vehemently resisted, and the values consciously internalized in purely rural areas. However, this reviewed study is relevant but it does not address forgotten aspects of Benin indigenous food.
This study is a clarion call to Benin Indigenes that culture takes a significant role in sharpening societies and traditions are the skeleton of culture. Certain food ingredients and food preparation methods being used are transmitted from generation to generation. Traditional foods are foods and dishes that are passed through generations or which have been consumed for many generations. Traditional foods and dishes are traditional in nature, and may have a historic precedent in a national dish, regional cuisine or local cuisine. Traditional foods and beverages may be produced as homemade, by restaurants and small manufacturers, and by large food processing plant facilities. The author further said we often don’t think beyond the package or the can. Since the advent of mechanization and processing techniques developed during the time around the Industrial Revolution, our indigenous food has become increasingly removed and modified from its natural state. The effect these processes have had on our health has been profound. To the average person, the notion of eating healthy or nutritious food has been translated into something which powerful companies are now able to employ effective marketing strategies by which to sell products.
In order for people to maintain a healthy, balanced life, they need to go back to the traditional ways of eating and obtaining food that's harmless to their bodies. They need to consume the foods that are suitable to their bodies and help them stay energized. People will have different body reactions if they obtain the foods that are not suitable to their systems. Therefore, going back to the traditional ways of eating has its own reasons and it 's beneficial as well. Some reasons why traditional ways helps is because it 's good in controlling your weight with less calories, helps you fight chronic diseases and illnesses, also whole foods like traditional foods are inexpensive where you can save money and cook at home with family and bond with them. Why are traditional foods so good for you? Traditional foods are foods that were consumed throughout history before the modernization and industrialization of the food supply. These foods are not only free from additives, chemicals and many of the things we find in food today, but they were exceptionally nourishing.
Women are responsible for caring for the home and for elders. Importantly, it is only women who prepare and cook food. Most often in Benin City food is a feminine function par excellence, tightly linked with fertility, as it is another way of giving life’. Indeed the Benins still considered it shameful for a man to cook for himself, unless he is alone at the farm. And it is here that the social and cohesive functions of food preparation time are seen. Most Benin indigenes have ‘not learnt to cook from written recipes, but from oral learning from mothers and grandmothers’. Another method of teaching children obligatory sharing consists of withholding portions of meat, eggs and other animal foods. It is believed that when children acquire tastes in these expensive and scarce commodities, the desire to satisfy them will make the children steal. It was suspected that this withholding led to negative nutritional outcomes for children. This showed that the available meat was given to fathers, then mothers, at the expense of the children. While the total amount of meat increases with modernisation, the ratio of meat relative to the total remains the same and the adult still gets more of their nutritional needs met while children get a lesser amount but possibly enough to meet their nutritional requirements.
