DAY 14, 5 ESSENTIAL WISDOM TOOLS FOR A FRUITFUL LIFE

1. Individuals, by changing their

inner attitudes of mind, can

change the outer aspects of their

lives.

- DR. WILLIAM JAMES


2. The more you think about your major definite purpose and

how to achieve it, the more you activate the Law of Attraction in

your life.

- BRIAN TRACY


3. Whenever you find something getting done, you find a

monomaniac with a mission.

- PETER DRUCKER


4. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can

achieve.

- NAPOLEON HILL


5. It has been said "Attention is the key to life." Wherever your

attention goes, your life goes as well.

GOD BLESS

FOODS OF PLANT ORIGIN AND THEIR USEFULNESS - ROOTS & TUBERS

ROOTS AND TUBERS: 

Roots and tubers are storage organs for plants and are also important to man as food.

They rank next to the cereal grains as the major source of carbohydrate in Nigeria and provide a significant part of the total food supply to the people of the tropics.

They also contribute to the economies of many developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America as food staples. Some species of yam and taro have potential in traditional medicine as precursors of certain pharmaceutical steroids and alkaloids.

The major tuber and root crops grown in the tropics are cassava, yam and cocoyam. Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots are also grown in the tropics but are primarily temperate crops. These crops are highly perishable and huge losses can occur after harvest due to their high water content.

COMPOSITION AND NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF ROOTS AND TUBERS: 

Nutritionally, roots and tubers contribute about 20-40% of the total calories and about 7.1% protein to the diets of the people of sub-saharan Africa.

In Nigeria, they are main sources of calories accounting for over 50% of the caloric intake of the people. Yam, a popular staple food in Nigeria, has less than 6% protein while cassava, the major source of energy is a poor source of protein (less than 3%). Cocoyam is fair in protein (7.9%) and calcium. Sweet potatoes are poor in protein but fair in their supply of the B-vitamins and ascorbic acid. The yellow varieties are rich in carotene. Irish potato is an excellent source of ascorbic acid and fair in protein and the B-vitamins.

Cassava, particularly the bitter cultivars are associated with toxic cyanide in bound and free forms. Yam and cocoyam in their fresh states also contain substances which cause irritation to the skin and throat.

Cooking alone or in combination with other processes such as roasting, fermentation or soaking in water are able to render toxic substances associated with roots and tubers harmless.


UTILIZATION OF ROOT AND TUBER CROPS

1. YAMS: 
Yams can be prepared as food in many ways. They may be boiled in pieces of convenient sizes or sometimes boiled whole if the tubers are small.

Boiled yam may be eaten with meat, fish, stew, vegetable soup or palm oil.

Yam tubers may be rosted in an oven or over a slow fire or baked in the ashes of fire. Small slices  or cubes of the raw tuber are also fried in hot oil in a manner similar to French fries. Softer and more palatable products are however, obtained if the slices are pre-boiled and strained off from the water used for boiling before being fried.

Although, considerable sizes and quantities of yam tubers are used as already expressed, the most important culinary products made from yam are: Yam chips, yam flakes and yam flour.

YAM CHIPS: 
Yam tubers are cleaned, peeled and cut laterally or lengthwise into small pieces.

The slices are then soaked in water for 2-4 hours. Parboiled (60-72°c; 12-18 minutes). Left to steep in the hot water until cool.

Sun or air dried to 10-14% moisture content. The yam chips is ready.

YAM FLAKES: 
To produce yam flakes, yam tubers are cleaned, peeled, washed, cut into thin slices and cooked under pressure for about 30 minutes.

They are then mashed and the product drum dried to thin flakes which are then packaged in polythene bags.

Yam flakes offer a high potential for processing and storing yams.

The preparation time from flakes to a white doughy mass is much shorter than preparing pounded yam from fresh yam tubers.

Unlike pounded yam, yam flakes requires no pounding; all that is needed is stirring and kneading in hot boiling water.

YAM FLOUR: 
Yam flour is made by:
- Cleaning
- Peeling
- Cubing/slicing
- Blanching and sulphiting
- Steaming for 30 minutes
- Drying
- Mechanically grinding to form the yam flour.
- Packaging in polythene bags for use.

Yam flour for fufu is considered slightly interior to yam flakes for "poundo yam" because of its light brown dough compared to that from yam flakes which is white.

Yam flour can be stored for a considerable period of time and can be reconstituted with hot water followed by stirring to make fufu.


2. COCOYAM: 
The cocoyams- Colocasia(taro) and Xanthosoma(tania) are the most important genera of the family, Aracea used for food in West Africa.

Alocasia, Amorphophallus and Caryotosperma are three other genera common in the tropical areas of the Pacific.

Cocoyam may be pounded either pure or mixed with yam and cassava and eaten with vegetable soup.

They can also be boiled or roasted and eating with palm oil, stew, meat or fish.

Two main products, cocoyam chips (achicha) and the cocoyam flour are produced from cocoyam(taro).

PRODUCTION OF COCOYAM CHIPS:
The raw corms are cleaned, washed and boiled for 2-3 hours until they are soft.

The skin is then peeled, cut into slices, sun or smoke dried until they are readily break between the fingers.

Is then packed and stored.

The chips is crushed into small grits, boiled and mixed with copious quantities of leafy vegetables and palm oil to form a meal.

PRODUCTION OF COCOYAM FLOUR:
To produce cocoyam flour, cleaned and peeled corms and cormels are chipped, parboiled or blanched, sun-dried, ground, sieved to flour and stored.

The coarse particles (mostly fibre) are fed to live stock. The flour is usually made into a smooth thick paste in hot water and eaten with rich vegetable soup.


3. SWEET POTATOES: 
They can be boiled and mashed or baked, or processed into intermediate moisture as well as low moisture content fried chips.

The tubers contain free sugar as well as starch in a readily digestible form.

Holding these potatoes in cold storage (10-14°c) even for a few days causes accumulation of reducing sugars whose caramelization results in dark brown fried chips that are sugary.

Sweet potatoes can be de-sugared by holding the tubers at 40°c and 95% relative humidity prior to processing.

This treatment gives chips with moderate brown colour and less sweetness which are preferred by consumers.


4. IRISH POTATOES: 
Irish potatoes can be dehydrated to make non instant potato chips.

Frozen French fries, a popular product from irish potatoes can be produced by cutting into finger length slices (1cm x 1cm), washed and peeled potatoes which are then individually quick frozen and packed. Frozen potato slices are deep-fat fried before consumption.

Boiled, peeled and mashed irish potatoes can also be dried to produce mashed potatoes.

To produce instant mashed potato, the cooked mashed potato is first partially dehydrated to about 50% moisture content, left to cool for 2-2.5 hours, coarse sieved and then dried to 3.5-4.8% moisture content in cabinet or tunnel dryers.

The dried product can be reconsituted for use in water heated to about 95°c to which 0.5% salt has been added (1:3.5-4.0 w/w powder: water ratio).

Reconstitution in boiling water results in an undesirable pasty product.


5. CASSAVA: 
Cassava is a major source of carbohydrate for the peoples of West and Central Africa. The protein is low in quantity and also poor in quality.

The tuber is used widely as feed for livestock.

In the diet, cassava is always combined with other nutritious foodstuffs which enhance their nutritional value.

For example, cooked garri and fufu are always served with a rich vegetable soup in Nigeria. Boiled cassava can be taken with roasted groundnut, coconut, fish or meat.

Traditional cassava salad also provides very good combinations of highly nutritious food stuffs.

Gari, cassava flour, cassava fufu, abacha and farinha de mandioca are the major cassava-based products used for human food in the tropics.


REFERENCES: 

Pomeranz, Y. and Meloan, C. E. (1980).  Food Analysis: Theory and practical. Revised ed. AVI publishing Co. Westport C. T.

Potter, N. N. (1980). Food Science. Third Ed. AVI publishing Co. Westport C. T.

Pyke M. (1981). Food Science and Technology. Fourth Ed. John Murray, London.

DAY 13, 5 ESSENTIAL WISDOM TOOLS FOR A FRUITFUL LIFE

1. You move from being a wandering

generality to becoming a

meaningful specific.

- ZIG ZIGLAR


2. Of all the sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these:

it might have been.

- POET JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER


3. The simplest and most direct solution, requiring the fewest

number of steps, is usually the correct solution to any problem.

- WILLIAM OF OCKHAM


4. One of the most important questions in goal setting is this:

What do I really want to do with my life? If you could do or be or

 have anything at all in life, what would it be?

- BRIAN TRACY


5. Have you built your castles in the air? Good. That is where

they should be built. Now, go to work and build foundations

under them.

- HENRY DAVID THOREAU

FOODS OF PLANT ORIGIN AND THEIR USEFULNESS - CEREALS AND LEGUMES

                                     
CEREALS AND LEGUMES

CEREALS: 
This are plant foods which are derived from seeds of the grass family. Cereals provide most of the world's food energy and more than one-third of its proteins (plant proteins).

Cereal grains are used in various forms. They can be consumed as they are for food, or in slightly modified forms. They can further be processed into flour, starch, oil, bran, sugar syrup, and numerous additional ingredients used in the manufacture of other foods. Moreover, they are fed to livestock which convert them to animal protein of meat, milk and eggs.

The three most important cereals in the world are wheat, rice and corn. Other important ones include sorghum, oats, barley, millet, beniseed and rye.

Generally, in cereals, the limiting amino acid is lysine. For example in corn meal, the lysine content is 167mg/gN while that of egg is 346mg/gN.

COMPOSITION AND USEFULNESS OF SOME CEREALS

1. RICE
COMPOSITION:
Rice contains 11% moisture, 65% carbohydrate, 8% protein, 2% fat, 9% firbre, 0.3% ash and 360 calories pre 100g. These values are average values of the different varieties of rice.

USEFULNESS
Rice is mostly consumed whole (without hull and bran) boiled or cooked in various forms with stew (containing meat, fish, oil and sometimes vegetables) in West Africa.

In China, it is eaten with pork, chicken or vegetables. in India as curry, in Spain as paella and in Italy as risotto.

It is sometimes parboiled, dried and processed into flour for baby foods and for people who are allergic to wheat flour.

Rice puddings are also made from boiled rice. A popular rice pudding in Northern Nigeria is 'Tuwo-shinkafa'. Rice is also used in Japan to brew an alcoholic beverage called Sake. The by-product of rice processing such as hull, bran and germ are used as animal feeds.


2. MAIZE OR CORN
COMPOSITION: 
Corn is composed of 11.5% moisture, 72% carbohydrates, 10% protein, 4% fat, 2% fibre and 352 calories per 100g. As was stated earlier, the values of composition are average values. These values can vary depending on varieties, stage of maturity, geographical and weather conditions, soil and other factors.

Corn or maize flour is lower in protein content when compared to wheat but it has higher iron and vitamin A contents than wheat.

The protein type found in corn is Zein hence corn flour is not good in bread making.

USEFULNESS: 
Corn is consumed in various forms. It is eaten green, that is, when matured, it is harvested green and boiled or roasted for consumption. It is also described as eating corn on the cob. This is a very popular way of eating corn in Nigeria and in the coast of West Africa.

Corn may be converted to products such as syrup, sugar or pap. These are products of wet milling of corn. Wet milling process involves soaking the kernel overnight to allow them imbibe water. The swollen and softened kernels are milled thereby loosening the hull and the germ. The germ is separated by floatation.

The ground corn is suspended in water and passed over a bolting cloth to remove the hulls. The hulls, pressed cake from germ and proteins are used as animal feeds.

Corn sugar is made by hydrolysis of the starch leading to the production of hydrated dextrose.

Dry milling of corn also leads to production of different food items, chief among which is semovita.

Corn flour is used also for making pastries. In north central part of Nigeria, particularly among the Igalas, cassava flour is mixed with corn flour to prepare a popular corn meal locally referred to as 'ojeakpa' - a variant of semovita.


3. WHEAT 
COMPOSITION:
The gross composition of wheat is as follows:- Moisture - 11%, carbohydrate - 69%, protein - 13%, indigestible fibre - 2%, ash - 2% and calories - 340 per 100g.

The above values are average values, therefore, these compositions may vary slightly depending on varieties, stage of maturity, geographical and weather conditions and soil or edaphic factors.

Wheat protein is called gluten. It is gum-like and makes the wheat flour suitable for bread making. It holds the dough together and retains the gas to make the bread porous. Gluten is a mixture of two proteins, glutenin and gliadin.

USEFULNESS: 
Wheat flour is used tremendously in baking industries including bread making, sweet doughs, cakes, biscuits, dough nuts, crackers, etc.

It is also used in making some breakfast cereals, gravies, soups, confections, etc.

Another major use of wheat flour is in the making of alimentary pastes such as macaroni, spaghetti and other type of noodles.


LEGUMES:
Legumes are widely distributed world-wide and generally referred to as pulses. Every zone of the world has some legumes peculiar to them.

For example, in France, groundnuts are found, in South America, lima and runner beans, in the United States, soya beans and in Africa, cowpeas, bambara nut, broad beans, in India, lentils and chick peas, etc. All of these and many more can now be cultivated in many parts of the world.

There are two main types of legumes:
i). Those containing high-protein and high oil content. Examples include; soya bean, groundnut, lupin and winged beans.

ii). Those containing moderate protein and low oil content. Examples include; cowpea, gram, pea, bambara groundnut, lentil and the different varieties of the phaseolus group.

LEGUMES COMPOSITION AND USEFULNESS
Legumes are generally high in B vitamins but low in sulphur containing amino acids (methionine and cystine).

They have high content of lysine which makes legumes a good complement to cereals (cereals are low in lysine but high in methionine).

Legumes have some nutritional disadvantages apart from being deficient in methionine and cystine. These are of low digestibility and the consumption of high proportion of legumes in the diet can cause flatulence.

In some cases, it is very fatal to eat some legumes if not properly cooked and the cooking water discarded.

For example, sword bean is highly toxic except the water for cooking it is changed at least twice to remove the leached toxins.

Moreover, butter beans contain hydrogen cyanide which must be removed by steeping the beans in water over night.

Fava beans causes haemolytic anemia (favism). Yet another disease caused by a species, tare(Lathyrus Sativus) is lathyrism which leads to serious paralysis of the legs.

It is very important to follow the laid down procedure for cooking some of these legumes.


REFERENCES 

Adeyemi, I. A, Balogh, E. (1985) Biotechnology in food processing: prospects in Nigeria. Nig. Food J vol 2 and 3

Egbekun, M. K. (1997) Food Biotechnology in sustenable food production and food security in Nigeria. Proc 28th Annual conf. Nutr. Soc. Nigeria

Ihekoronye, A. I. and Ngoddy, P. O. (1985) Integrated Food Science and Technology for the Tropics. Macmillan Publishers, London.

Ignatius, A. O. and Matthew, K. E. (1998) Comprehensive Food Science and Nutrition. Ambik press (ltd) Publishers, Nigeria.

DAY 12, 5 ESSENTIAL WISDOM TOOLS FOR A FRUITFUL LIFE

1. Immature people always

want to win arguments even at

 the cost of a relationship.

Mature ones prefer losing an

argument just to uphold a

golden relationship.


2. A hopeless person sees difficulties in every chance but a

hopeful person sees chances in every difficulty.


3. I simply showed the plan to 1200 people. 900 said "NO" and

only 300 signed up. Out of those 300, only 85 did anything at all.

Out of those 85, only 35 were serious and out of those 35, 11

made me a millionaire.

- BILL BRITT


4. The greatest quality on earth is the willingness to become.

- MIKE MURDOCK


5. Greatness is not the pursuit of perfection but the pursuit of

completion.

- MIKE MURDOCK


Do have a nice day.