Overview

This information can help you, your family or your carer to make your meals more nourishing (fortify them). 

If your meals are more nourishing, this can help you to:

• regain any weight that you have lost
• maintain your current weight
• reduce the rate at which you are losing weight

You may find it difficult to gain weight or be losing weight unintentionally if:

• you keep struggling to eat full meals
• your energy needs are high

This information is suitable if you, your family or your carer have told us that you prefer to eat traditional African food and meals. It gives a few examples of:

• carbohydrates and proteins to include in your main meals
• what you can add to sauces
• snacks that you can have in between your meals
• nourishing drinks that you can have

These examples are not a full list. We also include a sample fortified meal plan using African food.

Please speak to a dietitian if you need more personalised advice.

Your main meals

This section gives you guidance about including carbohydrate and protein in your main meals. 

Carbohydrate

Try to include a source of carbohydrate in the meal or as an accompaniment. Examples are grains and grain products, traditional starchy dishes, roots, tubers and starchy fruits, or breads and flatbreads.

Some examples of grains and grain products are:

• rice
• couscous
• maize meal
• bulgar wheat
• teff
• fonio
• barley
• millet

Examples of traditional starchy dishes (doughs, balls and porridges) are:

• omo tuo (rice balls)
• eba (grated cassava)
• sadza, pap or ugali (maize)
• fufu (boiled and pounded cassava, green plantain or both)
• amala (yam, plantain or cassava flour)
• pounded yam

Examples of roots, tubers and starchy fruits are:

• yams
• plantain (green or ripe)
• green banana
• taro or dasheen
• cassava

Examples of breads and flatbreads are:

• flatbread
• Agege bread
• chapati
• millet bread
• injera

You can add butter, cooking oils, nut butters or plant-based options to increase the energy content.

Protein

You also need to try to include a source of protein in the meal. Examples are beans, legumes and other plant protein, meat and poultry, fish and seafood, or eggs and dairy.

Some examples of beans, legumes and other plant protein are:

• egusi (melon seeds)
• Bambara groundnuts (okpa)
• groundnuts or peanuts (boiled, roasted or as paste)
• locust beans (iru or dawadawa)
• cowpeas or black-eyed beans
• pigeon peas

Examples of meat and poultry are:

• goat meat
• beef
• lamb
• snails
• tripe, shaki or mogodu
• cow foot or cow tail
• gizzards

Examples of fish and seafood are:

• stockfish (dried cod)
• smoked, dried or tinned fish
• crayfish (dried shrimp)
• fresh river or sea fish (tilapia, mackerel or catfish)

Examples of eggs and dairy are:

• boiled, fried or scrambled eggs, or eggs included in stews
• fermented milk or yoghurt

It is ideal to have a meal with 2 types of protein, such as different meats and beans or egg and fish.

Sauces

You can add sauces to meat and vegetable dishes. To make sauces more nourishing, you can add:

• extra oil, such as olive, vegetable or ground nut oil
• peanut or ground-nut paste (peanut butter) or other nut butters
• coconut milk or coconut cream
• single or double cream, or plant-based options
• ground nut powder or peanut powder
• ground seeds, such as melon seed powder or egusi
• whisked eggs

Snacks

You need to aim to have 2 to 3 snacks a day in between your meals, or more if you cannot finish a meal.

The snacks can be small meals, such as a sandwich, or other foods like:

• cakes, biscuits or doughnuts*
• fresh, tinned or frozen fruit with cream, condensed milk or custard
• desserts with cream, condensed milk, custard or plant-based options poured over them
• mixed nuts or Bombay mix
• meat or vegetable patty
• eggs (cooked in any way)
• moi-moi (a steamed or boiled bean pudding)
• akara chinchin (savoury, deep-fried fritters), crisps or plantain chips
• milky puddings, such as ice cream, yoghurts, rice pudding or plant-based options

*If you have diabetes, you will need to continue to choose sugar-free options. However, you can have a moderate amount of food that contains sugar as part of a fortified diet. Speak to your GP, nurse or diabetes team for more information.

Drinks

You need to aim to have 8 to 10 drinks a day. These could be:

• tea, coffee or herbal tea
• milky drinks, such as hot chocolate, Horlicks^®, Ovaltine^® or milkshakes
• supermarket drinks such as ginger beer, Peanut Punch^®, SuperMalt^® or Nurishment^®
• fresh fruit juice or fruit smoothies
• drinks fortified with full-fat milk, skimmed milk powder, condensed milk, evaporated milk or plant-based options
• coconut water
• fruit smoothies with avocados added to them as a source of healthy fats
• drinks with brown sugar, white sugar or honey added to them for extra sweetness and energy*

*If you have diabetes, you need to continue to choose sugar-free drinks. However, you can have a moderate amount of foods that contain sugar as part of a fortified diet. Speak to your GP, nurse or diabetes team for more information.

Examples of nourishing drinks

Here are some examples of the nutritional values of various drinks:

• A 330ml bottle of SuperMalt^® has 210kcal.
• A 240ml carton of Peanut Punch^® has 200kcal and 8g protein.
• A 400ml tin of Nurishment^® has 396kcal and 20g protein.

Example fortified meal plan using African food

This is an example of a fortified meal plan that uses African food:

Meal	Suggested foods and drinks
Breakfast	Rice and beans with oil or butter mixed into them, 1 boiled egg and a glass of fruit juice
Lunch	Soup with 2 types of protein and a slice of buttered bread, followed by a pot of rice pudding
Dinner	Fried plantain, buttered vegetables and a piece of chicken or fried fish with a tomato sauce, fortified with peanut butter
Snack	A handful of mixed nuts