I’m so much sure you may regularly be fun of Hausa Koko.
A day never goes by that this food is not eaten.
Some people consume it as breakfast.
Others eat it before going to bed and to an extent, a greater number of Ghanaians use it as snacks.
You may be interested in consuming Hausa Koko, however, the question is, do you know the consequences of eating this food?
Does it have any benefit or danger to your body?
Trust me, you will find answers to the above-mentioned questions if you should read this article till the end.
Here, you will be schooled about what Hausa Koko offers to your body the very moment you eat it.
You should be mindful of the kinds of food that get into your stomach. What you eat has the potential of making you or unmaking you.
It is unfortunate that nowadays, people do not care much about what go into their body.
If you are not meticulous about what you eat, you will end up inviting illnesses upon yourself.
Just as you may like eating Hausa Koko, I love it too. Being a nurse, I feel that it is right I know the nutritional benefit of every food I consume. On the other hand, I also know that every bite has a little poison attached to it.
This is why I decided to research the health benefits of Hausa Koko.
Hausa Koko, also known as Spicy millet porridge, is a Ghanaian street food commonly eaten as breakfast.
This food is prepared using millet with a few local additives. It is called Hausa Koko because people have the notion that it is created in the Northern part of Ghana.
For many who likes eating this food, it is accompanied by a Ghanaian bean bun termed as “Koose”, a spicey fried flour dumpling (Pinkaso). In place of Koose, Hausa Koko can be eaten with bread and flavoured with milk and sugar.
Per the research, besides ginger, cloves, ground dried pepper, pinch salt, and black peppercorn, Hausa Koko is mainly made from millet.
Once you eat it, there are quite a number of nutrients it gives to your body.
If you should even abandon the health benefits of the additives such as ginger, cloves and the likes, the millet alone contains important nutritional components that help your body in diverse ways.
Come to think of it, millet contains Magnesium, Manganese, Tryptophan, Calcium, Fibre and Vitamin B.
Magnesium is the eleventh most abundant element by mass in the human body and it is essential to cell function and some 300 enzymes.
With the presence of magnesium ions in the body, enzymes which are chemical catalysts, are able to speed up body reactions.
This element also stabilizes abnormal nerve excitation or blood vessel spasm in such conditions as eclampsia.
Talking of Tryptophan, it is essential in humans. What this means is that the body cannot synthesize it, it must be obtained from the diet.
Therefore, eating Hausa Koko will get you this nutrient. Tryptophan is an a-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins and proteins are needed to sustain life.
It is also a precursor of the neurotransmitter; serotonin, the hormone; melatonin, and vitamin B3 (Niacin).
Furthermore, the function of Calcium and fibres in the body cannot be emphasized. While the former is responsible for the formation of strong bones and teeth, the latter helps in digestion and avoids constipation. Besides these benefits coming from the primary constituent of Hausa Koko, which is millet, other essential nutrients come to play when it is eaten with Koose, milk and other additives.
With this basic knowledge, you know what to expect from eating Hausa Koko and that you won’t just be eating it devoid of knowledge about its health benefits as other people do.
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