There is a world-leading action going on that is exciting me when it comes to the foods we consume today in this fast-paced world. On Monday, new regulations came into force in Britain banning daytime TV and online adverts for the so-called junk foods, in what the government calls a “world-leading action” to tackle childhood obesity. The ban – targeting ads for products high in fat, salt or sugar – is expected to remove up to 7.2 billion calories from children’s diets each year, according to the health ministry. ALSO READ: Why US reversed traditional food pyramid The implementation of the measure – first announced in December 2024 – follows other recent steps, including an extended sugar tax on pre-packaged items like milkshakes, ready-to-go coffees and sweetened yoghurt drinks. ALSO READ: How to make your diet healthy Local authorities have also been given the power to stop fast food shops setting up outside schools. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention, Ashley Dalton, said “By restricting adverts for junk food before 9:00pm and banning paid adverts online, we can remove excessive exposure to unhealthy foods.” Wow. I like that. How I wish that back home in Africa, we also adopted similar policies and returned to our roots by consuming more of our own foods, or what we prefer to call local foods. ALSO READ: Nutrient-rich foods for a healthy diet If you notice, in the current nutrition transition, this fast-paced world of globalisation has for a long time tempted us, especially of the developing world to consume high-calorie, nutrient-poor foods high in fats and sweeteners leading to the rapid rise of diet-related chronic diseases. But if the British today are going hard on unhealthy foods, I believe we can do so as well here and encourage consumption of our indigenous foods known everywhere to be of high nutritive value compared to exotic foods. Their greater consumption would significantly contribute to the reduction of micronutrient deficiencies and NCDs. Most of us grew up on these foods but because there has been an exponential shift towards westernised diets high in energy-dense nutrient-poor food, we decided to ignore local foods, leading to rising obesity, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases. In sub-Saharan Africa, diabetes is predicted to rise rapidly, increasing by 80% over 20 years and affecting 18.7 million by the year 2025. African indigenous food systems are typically biodiversity-rich, climate resilient and environmentally sustainable, and produce nutritious indigenous foods. Its plant genetic resources range from little-known indigenous wild fruits and vegetables, animals and medicinal plants, to indigenous staples like millet and sorghum. They are also an integral part of the cultural identity of indigenous peoples and are used for various cultural practices and nutritional functions. For instance, among the Baganda communities in Uganda, nursing or breast-feeding mothers used to be given young pumpkin fruit sliced, cooked, mashed and mixed with vegetable or goat soup, and banana juice. In some regions in East Africa millet porridge prepared with Tamarind juice is given to lactating mothers as it causes high breast milk production. The mature dry fruit, or calabash, is increasingly becoming popular in marriage ceremonies in the central and western parts of Uganda, where it is used to serve local drinks. However, with modernization, even these cultural identities seem to be fading away. Consumption of less nutritious staples like rice, maize and bananas and processed foods is rising, while consumption of indigenous foods like millet, wild fruits, indigenous beef and chicken is declining. Today, 30 crops supply 95% of the calories that people obtain from food globally, with only 4 crops — maize, rice, wheat and potatoes — supplying over 60%. The increased reliance on a narrow range of crops and animal breeds has led to the loss of diversity in all species (plants and animals alike), with greater loss in livestock diversity. This loss of biodiversity has been one of the leading causes of a change in food consumption patterns. Reduced diversity in food systems often leads to reduced diversity on plates and the homogenisation of diets. I am writing a book titled Homegrown. The book is about food meets wellness—why food is at the core of every aspect of wellness: mental health, physical health, emotional well-being, sexual wellness, nutritional, even relational. Inspired by my own upbringing, what I want to point out in this book is that growing up, when we were hungry, there was always a fruit in the living room. When we were hungry, there was a vegetable—we could just run in the garden behind our house and just pull out of the soil and eat it. My parents raised us on indigenous foods—the same foods they grew up eating and were fed by our grannies. I believe this is why we had strong immune systems and lived very healthy lives. Indigenous food is at the core of the book I am trying to write. In the course of writing this book, as an advocate for indigenous foods and a farmer myself, I have realized that many of our foods began to be threatened by the introduction of new commercial varieties bred for high yields or disease tolerance. For instance, traditional banana species have been replaced by commercial varieties, and cassava landraces have become scarce due to cassava mosaic disease. Research and development efforts have focused on promoting the cultivation and use of these so-called ‘improved plant varieties’ at the expense of indigenous food crops and their improvement. That could be the main reason most Gen Zs shun indigenous foods because there is probably limited information available about them which holds back their use and further action to promote them. It is also why, in African markets, even when most indigenous vegetables are sold cheaply, vegetable consumption is often regarded as a poor man’s diet. People are not so much exposed to these indigenous foods that even the nutrients are destroyed during cooking, reducing their effectiveness in ensuring food security. Long before the modernisation fever caught up with us, most of our parents and grannies who were taught by their parents had an indigenous way of preparing and preserving food with practices that had been used from ancient times to prevent food waste and to ensure communities have food all year round. We saw them using various methods such as grinding grains and legumes to produce powders using two stones, pounding vegetables and fruit using a mortar and pestle; soaking and germination; soaking in water, drying and pounding – mostly for cassava. In the 1960s, the intermixing of cultures introduced new foods and storage technologies into communities, including granaries made from a special grass called eteete (Symopogun) to wrap cereals, which were also mixed with wood or bean husk ash in order to prevent attack by pests. Other farmers noted the use of red-pepper (pili-pili) to keep and protect beans from pests, as well as fully sun-drying legumes before storage and mixing them with ash. Sun drying was the principal mode of extending shelf life of food, especially for cereals than fruits and vegetables. In preparations, most vegetables are prepared by steaming (sometimes in banana leaves) or by adding groundnuts or simsim paste before pounding and cooking. Groundnuts are roasted and pounded before they are added to leafy green vegetables. Yams are mostly prepared by steaming in banana leaves. The steamed yam is peeled before eating. Cassava is considered a good famine crop and in eastern, northern and western regions of Uganda where cassava flour is used as a composite with millet and sorghum for making the staple local bread eaten with a sauce. But all practices seem to be on the wane. Of course, the decline in the consumption of indigenous foods can also be attributed to increasing urbanization, a rising population, and shrinking agricultural land. As pressure on available natural resources grows, indigenous crops and animal species are rapidly being replaced by modern foods produced on large-scale farms. Poverty is another pressing issue, as many people are forced to sell their best animals—most of which are indigenous—leaving few to be conserved. In addition, the increasing problem of invasive crop weeds and the effects of climate change, including drought, diseases, pests, and famine, have become major challenges. However, this trend is also driven by policies and subsidies that promote agricultural modernization and commercialization. In many East African communities, awareness about the need to protect indigenous plants is limited. According to the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub 2025 report, the hidden social, economic, and environmental costs associated with food systems remain substantial, with updated estimates placing the total value of these hidden costs at USD 11.6 trillion (2020 Purchasing Power Parity) across 156 countries. So, how can we promote the consumption of indigenous foods? The good news is that there is a growing demand among urban dwellers, who are becoming increasingly aware of the health benefits of indigenous foods. Because most indigenous foods are traditionally grown in rural areas or found in the wild, many business-oriented farmers have begun cultivating indigenous and traditional crops in urban and peri-urban areas, selling them directly to city consumers. A study conducted in 2009 on the production and commercialization of various cultivated indigenous vegetables found that in Tanzania, African indigenous vegetables (AIVs) contributed, on average, 13% of farmers’ household income. In Kenya’s Kiambu District, the study highlighted how farmer groups successfully penetrated the high-value market segment for leafy indigenous vegetables through collective action and collaboration with supportive networks. Around 50% of market actors in Uganda collectively purchase African indigenous vegetables (AIVs) in bulk. A survey in Rukungiri District revealed that even when sourced from the wild, some indigenous food plants contribute significantly to household incomes, particularly in poorer households. Key vegetables identified as important for income generation included members of the amaranthus family—Amaranthus dubius, A. graecizans, and A. hybridus—as well as three indigenous fruits: Afromomum angustifolium (Amatehe), Solanum gilo (Etonga), and Cleome gynandra (Eshogi). This growing demand should be actively encouraged and harnessed to benefit small-scale producers, traders, and retailers in and around towns and cities, as well as indigenous communities in rural areas who continue to produce organic, ecologically grown foods using traditional practices. The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) marked a turning point in the transformation of global food systems, positioning them as a key lever to achieve all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the objectives of the United Nations Economic and Social Council by 2025. With just five years remaining to achieve the 2030 Agenda, more than 159 countries—including many in Africa—have appointed National Convenors, and 130 countries have defined national food systems pathways, many of which have already been translated into concrete actions. Voluntary reporting has expanded, signaling sustained political will to deliver on these commitments, despite a volatile global context marked by conflict, climate shocks, economic pressures, and widening inequalities. Encouraging trends are emerging from this collective effort. Across all regions, governments are embedding the right to food into constitutions and legislation, and aligning their food systems strategies with national plans for climate and biodiversity. Hopefully, in most sub-Saharan African countries, these strategies will support the production, protection, and consumption of indigenous foods. They should also promote the sharing and documentation of women’s and men’s indigenous knowledge and practices related to cultivation, processing, and cuisine. Countries are investing in science, technology, data systems, and artificial intelligence to guide decision-making and strengthen accountability. They are also building capacity in plant inventory techniques, developing and maintaining plant databases, enhancing law enforcement, and promoting plant conservation and sustainable use at both national and community levels. It is high time we returned to shopping at local markets for “our” foods and consuming them in abundance.
