TheNewsGuru

Tag: Food

  • Adamawa IDPs reject NEMA’s food intervention

    The aggrieved Internally Displaced Persons in Fufore International Transit camp, in Adamawa, have rejected the foodstuffs supplied to them by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the IDPs on Wednesday staged a protest over shortage of food in the camp

    They said NEMA had not supplied food to them for four months.

    NAN reports that the Fufore International transit camp housing more than 1500 IDPs, is located near Fufore town, Fufore local government area, of Adamawa.

    Malam Umar Bakura, spokesperson of the IIDPs, told NAN on Friday, in Yola, that they rejected the foodstuffs because it was contaminanted and would not go round to all the IDPs.

    “We are about 1,500 Internally Displaced Persons including children, women, orphans and elderly people living in the Fufore camp.

    ”There are over 200 households in the camp and NEMA used to supply a total of 660 bags of 25 kg and 330 bags of soybean of 25 kg among the households for the period of one month.

    “But today (Friday) NEMA came with 220 contaminanted rice of 25 kg and 300 bags of soybean of 25 kg each to share, which is one third of what they were giving us previously and we rejected it, ” Bakura said.

    He said that they hailed from Bama, Gwoza and Gamboru in Borno, and called on the Gov. Babagana Zulum, to evacuate them back home.

    Meanwhile, Mr Midala Anuhu, NEMA’s operational officer in charge of Adamawa and Taraba, confirmed to NAN that the agency had evacuated the food items back to its store.

    “The agency reviewed the distribution of the food items, where it sent about 226 bags of rice of 25 kg and about 300 bags of soybean of 25 kg to the IDPs.

    ” They (IDPs) rejected the food items. We pleaded with them to accept it but they refused and protested that what we supplied to them is not enough for them.

    “So we evacuated the food items back to our store, because we have no choice,” Midala said.

  • Social media can increase children’s unhealthy food intake, research suggests

    Exposure to social media marketing of unhealthy food could lead to an immediate increase in children’s intake of unhealthy food with more calories, a new study published in Pediatrics suggested.

    The researchers from the University of Liverpool in Britain designed a control experiment which consisted of 176 participants aged nine to 11.

    The researchers said the study was aimed at examining the impact of social media marketing of snack foods on children’s snack intake.

    The participants were randomly split into three equal groups with each assigned to one of three influencer-marketing conditions: healthy food marketing, unhealthy food marketing, and non-food marketing.

    The result showed that children in the group that viewed unhealthy snack images consumed 31.5 per cent more calories from unhealthy snacks specifically, and 25.5 percent more calories in total compared with children, who saw non-food images (the control group).

    According to the study, though acute experimental exposure to influencers promoting unhealthy food on social media revealed direct influence on children’s food intake, healthy food endorsements on social media had little or no effect on them regarding healthy food intake.

    “Tighter restrictions are needed around the digital marketing of unhealthy foods that children are exposed to, and vloggers should not be permitted to promote unhealthy foods among vulnerable young people on social media,” Anna Coates, a member of the research team, said in a report published on the university’s website.

     

  • 2019 Budget: Buhari, Osinbajo to spend N1.3bn on travels, N149m on food

    The Federal Government budgeted N1,001,318,171 for President Muhammadu Buhari’s local and international travels in the proposed 2019 budget.

    The budget proposes N250,021,595 for the President’s local trips and N751,296,576 for him to travel internationally.

    Meanwhile, N83,974,710 was budgeted for Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo’s local travel, while N217,060,883 was proposed for his international trips.

    Under foodstuff/catering materials supplies, N98,306,492 was budgeted for the President and N50,888,218 for the Vice-President.

    The Federal Government also proposed N416,668,229 for the construction of the presidential wing of the State House Medical Centre out of the Presidency’s total estimate of N49, 307,859,794 in the 2019 budget proposal.

    Aside from this, N823,441,666 was proposed for the State House Medical Centre, including drugs and medical supplies (N208,350,424).

    Meanwhile, the State House also budgeted N36, 787,354 for drugs and medical supplies, and N51,821,160 for medical expenses.

    In the 2018 budget, the Presidency had proposed N1,030,458,453 for the State House clinic after the President’s wife, Mrs Aisha Buhari, criticised the medical centre for not having an “ordinary syringe.”

    In the 2017 budget, N3.2bn had also been allocated for the upgrade of the state clinic, including “the completion of ongoing work as well as procurement of drugs and other medical equipment.”

    The President and his deputy are also to spend over N7.5bn this year on “operations” and maintenance of office buildings, the breakdown of the 2019 budget showed.

    The breakdown, which was released obtained on Monday night, indicated that the entire State House was allocated N49.3bn for general services, covering capital, recurrent and overhead costs.

    However, the President’s office was given a dedicated vote of N10bn for the running of his office, out of which N7.5bn went for operations.

    To maintain presidential office buildings will cost N4.7bn this year.

    Similarly, the President’s direct overhead cost is N1.3bn, while his capital spending will consume another N416.6m, bringing the total figure for “operations” alone to N1.7bn.

    On his part, Osinbajo is to spend N591.8m on operations.

    Out of the figure, N448.6m goes into overhead costs, while the balance of N143.2m will be spent on capital provisions under operations.

    A further breakdown of the presidential budget showed that the Presidency would buy vehicles worth N607.1m this year.

    Aside from the N4.7bn budgeted for the maintenance of office buildings, the Presidential residential buildings will be rehabilitated with another N140.4m.

    The item titled ‘Refreshments/Meals’ has an allocation of N135.6m and an additional N25.6m, meaning a total N161.2m.

    Similarly, a provision of N65.4m was made for the animals in the State House for their “conservation.”

     

  • Prices of food items increase, as inflation rate drops in Nigeria

    Composite food index rose by 13.28 per cent in October 2018 compared to 13.31 per cent in September 2018, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports the NBS attributed the rise in the food index to increases in prices of fruits, meat, vegetables, potatoes, yam and other tubers, bread and cereals, and oils and fats.

    “On month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 0.82 per cent in October 2018, from 1.00 per cent recorded in September.

    “The average annual rate of change of the food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending October 2018 over the previous twelve-month average was 15.36 per cent, from the average annual rate of change recorded in September (15.92) per cent,” the NBS stated.

    According to the NBS, in October 2018, food inflation on a year on year basis was highest in Bayelsa (16.36%), Abuja (15.85%) and Taraba (15.27%), while Bauchi (12.17%), Oyo (11.76%) and Plateau (11.36%) recorded the slowest rise in food inflation.

    On month on month basis, however, October 2018 food inflation was highest in Kogi (2.28%), Plateau (2.42%) and Nasarawa (2.17%), while Akwa Ibom, Benue, Kwara and Ondo all recorded food price deflation or negative inflation (general decrease in the general price level of goods and services or a negative inflation rate) in October 2018.

    Meanwhile, data from the NBS consumer price index (CPI) indicated that Nigeria’s inflation rate, which climbed marginally to about 11.28 per cent in September, dropped slightly to 11.26 per cent in October.

    TNG reports CPI, which measures inflation rate for goods and services in the Nigerian economy, decreased by 11.26 per cent (year-on-year) in October 2018, about 0.02 per cent points lower than the rate recorded in September 2018.

    “The “’All items less farm produce”’ or Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood at 9.9 per cent in October 2018, up by 0.1 per cent from the rate recorded in September 2018 (9.8) per cent.

    “On month-on-month basis, the core sub-index increased by 0.80 per cent in October 2018 compared with 0.64 per cent recorded in September 2018.

    “The highest increases were recorded in prices of fuel and lubricants, vehicle spare parts, domestic and household services, carpets and other floor coverings, Dental services, Hospital services, repair of household appliances and Medical services.

    “The average 12-month annual rate of change of the index was 10.90 per cent for the twelve-month period ending October 2018 from 11.09 per cent recorded in September,” NBS stated.

    On a month-on-month basis, the report said headline inflation index increased by 0.74 per cent in October 2018, down by 0.09 per cent points from the rate recorded in September 2018 (0.83) per cent.

    The report said increases were recorded in all 12 classifications of individual consumption by purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index.

    The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the 12 months period ending October 2018 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12 months period, the report said, was 12.78 per cent, from 13.16 per cent recorded in September 2018.

    The urban inflation rate increased by 11.64 per cent (year-on-year) in October 2018 from 11.70 per cent recorded in September 2018, while the rural inflation rate increased by 10.93 per cent in October 2018 from 10.92 per cent in September 2018.

    On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose by 0.76 per cent in October 2018, from 0.86 per cent recorded in September, while the rural index also rose by 0.72 per cent in October 2018, down from the rate recorded in September 2018 (0.82) per cent.

    In August, headline inflation rate rose from 11.14 per cent in July to 11.23 per cent after maintaining 18 consecutive declines from about 17.78 per cent in February 2017.

    The rate again recorded a marginal increase by 0.05 per cent, from 11.23 per cent in August to 11.28 per cent in September 2018, about 0.84 per cent rise on a monthly basis.

     

  • Police arrest man for beating his pregnant wife mercilessly over food [Photos]

    Police arrest man for beating his pregnant wife mercilessly over food [Photos]

    A pregnant woman is nursing serious injuries after she was allegedly beaten by her husband.

    Valarie Masibo, 29 suffered facial, ear and dental injuries after she was allegedly being beaten by Naftali Luzeli, 26, at Kipkaren Estate in Eldoret on Friday.

    Reason? She delayed his supper.

    Ms Masibo’s photos went viral on Facebook and Twitter.

    Police arrested the suspect and are holding being held at Yamumbi Police Post.

    “The suspect is in our custody and he will face assault charges once the medical report on the victim is released,” said Mr Wilson Abduba, Eldoret South police boss.

    He said Ms Masibo was rushed to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) for treatment.

  • Nigeria may face acute food shortage over incessant herdsmen attacks – Soyinka

    Nigeria may face acute food shortage over incessant herdsmen attacks – Soyinka

    Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka on Friday expressed grave concern over the continued displacement of the nation’s farming population in various parts of the country by rampaging violent herdsmen.

    Soyinka warned that if nothing was done urgently to stem the tide of killings and sacking of farmers by herdsmen, the dark cloud of violence could plunge the country into a major food crisis.

    The renowned playwright and author of Kongi harvest, who spoke in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, during a conference session on African Drum Festival, said a period like the on – going drum festival, demands a moment of sober reflection on the onslaught by herdsmen against the primary producers of food in the country.

    Soyinka who is the consultant for this year’s African Drum festival, however, added that the appalling situation should not be allowed to completely dampen the spirit of creativity.

    He called for the immediate restoration of displaced farmers to their traditional base, as a first step towards ensuring that this country is good habitation for people .

    In his address, Governor Ibikunle Amosun observed that the intellectual angle to the festival was an innovation powered by Soyinka thanking him for putting the event together.

     

  • High protein vegetables you need to eat

    High protein vegetables you need to eat

    It is key to consume essential nutrients for a healthy body. One of the important nutrients the body requires is protein. Protein helps keep your muscles strong and healthy and is required by each and every cell of the body. Interestingly, you can get protein from vegetables. In line with this, Jumia Food, Nigeria’s No 1 food ordering platform shares vegetables that have a high protein content you need to eat.

    Peas

    Peas are a good source of vegetable protein along with having a decent amount of fibre. It is low in fat and has no cholesterol. If you haven’t added peas in your diet, it’s time you do.

    Spinach

    Spinach is believed to be one of the most nutritious green vegetables you can eat. It is said that protein accounts for 30 percent of its calories along with essential amino acids.

    Potatoes

    Potatoes are usually eaten as a carbohydrate because of their starchiness. But they’re classified as a vegetable, and they can add some protein to your diet, although a relatively small amount compared to peas.

    Cabbage

    Cabbage is a vegetable whose health benefits are well-known but isn’t often credited for its protein content. It doesn’t contain a large amount of protein, but it is still enough to help the body.

    Broccoli

    Broccoli delivers a fair amount of protein, zero fat and fewer calories to the body. It makes for a great food full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that promote a healthy lifestyle.

     

  • Checkout these delicious sleep boosting foods

    Checkout these delicious sleep boosting foods

    Quite a number of foods contain naturally occurring substances that improve sleep and enable us to sleep better. So, if you are finding it difficult to sleep, Jumia Food, Nigeria’s No 1 food ordering platform shares some of the best choices to help you settle down for a quality rest.

    Bananas

    Bananas are loaded with potassium and magnesium. These compounds don’t just refuel your muscles, they also serve as a natural sleep aid. So, the more you eat bananas the better your sleep.

    Oatmeal

    A bowl of oatmeal can soothe you right to sleep. Whole grains, like oats, are naturally rich in the amino acid, which your body uses to make the sleep hormones. It will help establish and maintain steady sleep cycles.

    Pineapples

    You don’t hear pineapples being praised for their health benefits very often. But the fruit can raise melatonin levels in your blood. This helps the body maintain its temperature thus boosting your sleep.

    Cereal

    Cereal may be your go-to morning meal, but it can also make the perfect before-bed snack. Carbs make certain chemicals more available to the brain, which is why carb-heavy meals tend to make you sleepy.

    Walnuts

    Walnuts are a naturally rich source of sleep-enhancing amino acid that helps make melatonin. This helps you fall asleep faster because of walnut increase concentrations of melatonin in the blood.

     

  • IDPs protest over shortage of food in Adamawa

    Hundreds of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Fufore and Malkohi camps in Adamawa staged peaceful protests over lack of food in their camps.

    The IDPs mostly Women and Children on Wednesday appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in their plight.

    Adamawa has only two designated camps managed by NEMA and they are situated at Fufore and Malkohi villages with a total number of about 3,000 IDPs.

    The IDPs, who mostly are from Borno, were in the two camps for over two years waiting to be evacuated to their state of origin.

    The IDPs in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) complained that many families in the camps were in critical living conditions due to hunger.

    Malam Adamu Bukar from Malkohi camp said that he has one wife and three children and they only eat once in a day.

    “Since early January, when they distributed the normal thirty days food items to us, we have never received anything again.’’ Bukar said.

    According to him, people living in the camp need urgent food intervention, because any moment from now some people, especially children would die of hunger.

    Also speaking, Malam Haruna Bana, from Borno and living in Malkohi camp expressed fear of imminent starvation and malnutrition in the camp.

    Bana said that they received the last food in December 2017 and since then they were not given anything.

    He appealed to Borno government to come to their aid and evacuate them.

    A security officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, at one of the camp also confirmed the situation, saying that the development was a threat to the camp security.

    “On daily basis, the IDPs in sizeable number go out of the camp to look for food, which is a security challenge to the entire people living in the camp,’’ the source said.

    When contacted over the situation, Malam Abbani Imam, the state Coordinator NEMA in charge of Adamawa and Taraba confirmed the development but said the challenge would soon be addressed.

    Imam said that the state office had already informed the NEMA headquarters of the situation and were waiting for the approval to release food to the camps.

     

  • Tasty foods for the Northern Nigeria traveller

    Northern Nigeria offers numerous attractions for tourists, and besides visiting the tourist-worthy sites, travellers can also enjoy tasty traditional food of the north.

    Although the food of the region is not considered as the primary reason for its popularity, one cannot ignore the fact that the Northerners have contributed richly to Nigeria’s national food identity. Below, Jumia Travel, the leading online travel agency, shares traditional foods of the Northerners.

    Burabisco

    A traditionally made couscous meal common to Northern Nigeria, especially in Maiduguri, Burabisco is loved and enjoyed by many. Usually paired with spicy stew of meat and vegetables, its rich ingredients categorize it among luxurious dishes in the region.

    Miyan Kuka

    Miyan Kuka is certainly the most famous northern Nigerian soup and translated as “Boabab leaf soup”. The green draw-soup is made from ground baobab leaf and special spices, preferably ‘Yaji’ – a mixture of ground pepper, ginger, garlic and other seasonings/herbs.

    Tuwon Dawa

    This is a side dish made with ground guinea-corn made thick and cassava. It is best eaten with soups like Kuka and okra. This meal is unique majorly because it is best prepared with firewood.

    Tuwon Shinkafa

    This mouth-watering dish is possibly the most popular foods in the Northern part of Nigeria. It is also very palatable and widely embraced by other cultures in the country. The meal consists of thick rice pudding and spicy sauce. If you are visiting the region, try this meal to broaden the spectrum of your taste. And once tried, you may find it hard to resist the temptation of re-ordering.

    Pate

    A dish usually prepared with ground corn or rice, cooked with vegetables, tomatoes, onions, pepper, garden egg, locust beans, groundnut, biscuit bone, meats minces and sometimes, assorted meat parts, Pate is largely consumed in Kaduna, Nassarawa, Plateau and other Northwestern states. This dish is primarily porridge and is an all-time favourite liked by almost all age groups.