'Promote Nigerian Food In Hotels'

 Nigerians have called on stakeholders in the hospitality industry to encourage the consumption of indigenous cuisine over continental dishes. Austin Ovisa, an educationist, said the rate at which the country was fast losing its rich cultural values, particularly its food culture, to foreign dishes was disturbing.
Ovisa said the country was at the verge of losing all its cultural foods to foreign foods because of imitation.
He noted that most Nigerian dishes were more natural than continental dishes, adding that eating indigenous food could help reduce health related hazards.
“I prefer local dishes, they are more natural, and our body needs natural foods,” he said. “We, as Nigerians, do not need to copy foreign culture. We have gone to the extent of copying everything about them ranging from fashion and types of food.”
Ovisa added that indigenous dishes were not acidic like the continental foods.
According to him, large quantities of chemicals and preservatives in food could make a person to purge.
“Foreign dishes always contain lots of chemicals,” he said. “This means that preservatives are added so as to lengthen their shelf life. This is neither good for the health nor the growth of a body system.”
Ovisa said that some continental dishes were acidic to the body, hence the need to avoid such dangerous continental foods.
He stressed the need for cultural groups to imbibe the habit of eating balanced diet for healthy living.
Blessing Sighe, a civil servant, said that indigenous dishes were better because they were often prepared within the context of the people’s culture. “I prefer our own dishes because we have our style of cooking it unlike the continental dishes which are being garnished with all sorts of spices and some are not well cooked,” he said.                     
Dada Rufus, a staff of Metro Net Communications, said that keeping the body and mind at rest required good intake of natural food.
Rufus noted that though both dishes were good, it was important for Nigerians not to throw away their culture. “Our dishes are natural because they are direct from source,” he said. “So this will help mental, psychological and social development of the mind and body.”