Benefits And Effects Of Drinking Garri

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Garri is a good food and even has more nutritional
benefits than eating rice. Soups made with palm oils
and vegetables are the best to use with garri.
Soaking and drinking garri may not give you the
balanced diet that you require, so therefore, it is not
advisable to drink gari alone. Soaking of gari in water
is not a sufficient meal and too much of this can have
a health effect on your vision.
Garri is best taken in the busy hour of the day like in
the afternoon to replenish lost energy and to allow
burning more energy. Diabetes sufferers should avoid
taking garri because it is a rich source of sugar for the
body, but if they still want to, they should just reduce
the quantity of garri they consume. Drinking gari
during pregnancy is also frowned upon. Below are
the health effects of garri:
In West Africa, most especially Nigeria, one very
indispensable food is garri. The food which is derived
from cassava tubers is locally called “Garri” by many
Nigerian tribes and is pronounced as ‘garry’. Other
names that it is called are ‘African or cassava flakes,
gari, garry, or gali’. There are many health benefits of
cassava garri, and there are also effects of garri on
health. The English name of garri is always referred
to as “Cassava flakes.”
Importance of Garri
Because of its affordability, garri is enjoyed by all. The
rich and the poor all consume garri. It is used to
make “Eba” after mixing with hot water and taken
with soups. And because of its flaky nature when
soaked in cold water, it is popularly taken as a food
drink in many households.
Though drinking of garri is common among poor and
average families (because the rich could easily afford
well-processed flakes made from corn), it is taken
with milk, sugar, suya (roasted meat), groundnut,
kulikuli (snacks made from groundnut), coconut, fried
meat, fish (raw, cooked or fried), among others.
Garri has plentiful benefits as it increases vitality in its
consumers. However, taking too much of garri can
have some serious health effects on health and
vision. Before discussing the effects of garri on health,
take a look at the many benefits.
Its Benefits:
As mentioned earlier, garri is a staple food, and
mostly eaten in all of West Africa. It is a food that
every common man craves for, and it is locally
produced.
Garri is a grain-like food substance that is derived
from drying and processing of starchy plant tuber,
cassava. The major nutritional content of garri is
carbohydrate. It is a cheap and indigenous source of
energy. Unlike rice and other expensive food
commodities that are eaten occasionally due to its
price and availability, garri is easily produced in small
quantities for home consumption by families most of
whom engage in subsistence farming, or in larger
quantities for sale.
Cassava is used to produce two popular local food
types called Garri and Akpu (or Fufu). Akpu is a white
food substance that has been prepared from cassava
after allowing for fermentation and later boiled for
eating with soup. For Garri, cassava is soaked and
fermentation is allowed. Then it grounded, fried and
dried for storage purposes. Garri can be in yellow or
white colour depending on what type of palm oil was
used to fry it. Yellow garri is said to be more
nutritious than white garri, since it is fried with palm
oil which contains vitamins like A and C.
Garri can be taken on its own by soaking in water
and drinking, but it could also be mixed with hot
water, and be eaten with soup to give a balanced
diet, since it is mostly an energy giving food and can
help give energy to farm workers, busy professionals,
people recovering from malaria, and even used for
recovery from alcohol hangover.
Its Effects:
1. Eye Defects: Garri is made from cassava which is
known to contain hydrocyanic acid. Cyanide in garri,
if contained in large quantity can lead to serious eye
defects. However, proper, safe, and thorough
processing of the garri should reduce the
concentration of the acid to a considerate level.
2. Where in excess, another drastic effect of Cyanide
which is an organic acid in nature is that it can lead
to intestinal issues, and can worsen the situation of
an ulcer patient.
3. Cassava which is the crop from which garri is
derived from is rich in carbohydrate. A cup of garri
contains about 360 calories, out of which 99 per cent
is carbohydrate. Hence, consuming too much of garri
can lead to excess storage of carbs in the body and
this can lead to unnecessary weight gain. So, you
know, garri is not good for weight loss.
With these stated side effects of garri, you may be
having a second thought on consuming it. The major
key here is the need to take caution so as to prevent
any negative health effects. As stated above, proper
processing of the garri can dramatically reduce the
level of cyanide.
Hence, it is advisable that you purchase your garri
from trusted. Now that you know the calories in
drinking garri, moderate your overall consumption of
garri.

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