Have you had Ogbono soup lately? What do you truly know about this delicious soup made from Ogbono seeds?
Most times people fail to make an effort to know what goes into their pot. And this is one reason it has been said over and over again that your health is dependent on what you take in and what you digest.
Ogbono, also called Irvingia gabonensis (botanical name), dika nut and bush mango, is a great fruit.
The third name is one of the reasons people eat the flesh of the fruit, although it is bitter. There is a specie that is sweet which is referred to as Ugili in Delta State.
However, the most popular way people consume Ogbono in Nigeria is in soup. Draw soup is great with any form of swallow. It just goes down smoothly.
Also, the soup is often used for celebration of the New Yam festival especially in most communities in the Igbo speaking part of Delta State.
Some persons who consume Ogbono soup do so because it was traditionally handed down to them by their parents.
Sadly very few are aware of the nutrients that this nut brings to their body when consumed.
Because of its composition, Ogbono is also used for other things.
Meanwhile, before you cook your next Ogbono soup, here are things to consider.
Chemical Composition
Every food item that you consume has its own composition in terms of compounds and that is a pointer to what you get when you consume it.
A review of the components of Ogbono showed that proximate composition of dika nut kernels ranged from:
Moisture: 2.10 to 11.90 per cent
Crude protein: 7.70 to 9.24 per cent
Ash: 2.26 to 6.80 per cent and
Crude fat: 51.32 to 70.80 per cent
Crude fibre: 0.86 to 10.23 per cent
Carbohydrate: 10.72 to 26.02 per cent.
From the above composition, it is obvious that the nut is nutritious.
Interestingly, the fat component is high, and this is one area that should draw your attention when preparing your soup with it.
Fat Composition And Weight Gain
According to the research, dika nut kernels has appreciable amount of protein, carbohydrate and high level of fat content while oil extracted from dika nut kernels have high saponification value, high myristic acid and high lauric acid.
However, the fat component is often referred to as good fat, but this also calls for caution when preparing Ogbono soup.
We have seen people prepare their Ogbono soup with excess palm oil. Ogbono contains fat and this is why people extract the oil from the seeds and use for other things.
Therefore, it is important that when you are preparing your Ogbono soup, you use less palm oil. If you desire that colour that palm oil brings, you can add little quantity of turmeric in the soup.
Palm oil is fattening and would bring unhealthy fat into the soul, making it possible for it to make an individual gain weight.
Mothers of old, often cook the soup with little amount of oil as a result of this.
Other Uses Of Ogbono
Swallow Binder
Did you know that you can use the powder of this seed to prepare your swallow?
People who eat swallow meals with low carbohydrate often find it had to make the swallow stay together like eba (garri swallow) and other swallow forms.
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Adding a tea spoon of ground Ogbono will help hold the swallow together and give it that feel you crave.
Thickener
You can also use this nut as a thickener for soup or anything you want to make thick.
This really works well.
Other Health Benefits Of Ogbono
Once you prepare your soup well, the fruit also offers you other different health benefits.
a) It lowers bad cholesterol level. The presence of Myristic acid in the nuts makes it lower cholesterol level.
b) Promotes heart health since it lowers cholesterol level.
c) It also helps lower blood sugar level. It is rich in fibre and this helps aid proper digestion of food components.
d) Promotes brain health. It contains lauric acid which could protect against Alzheimer’s disease.
e) It also aids in weight loss and this is because of the presence of lauric acid which aids weight loss.
Kindly share the article with your friends and loved ones to help them know this before they prepare their Ogbono soup.
Thanks, Debora Blalock for sohealthyng.com