When media misleads about cabbage or ugali, it goes into war with the public

Cabbage was just chilling: on the endless luxuriant acres of Nyandarua; enjoying an afternoon shower on a farm in Kutus; dozing quietly in Mama Mboga’s roadside stall in Isinya; suffocating inside an overloaded lorry heading to Muhoroni; braving a rainy night in a makeshift mabati store at Keroka market…when two reporters at the Twin Towers in the heart of Nairobi launched a surprise attack.

“For years, cabbage has been the ultimate fallback food for Kenyans when money is tight; cheap, filling and usually abundant, especially in January. Together with dagaa (omena), it has long carried the tag of ‘the poor man’s meal’”, Rushidie Oudia and Waikwa Maina wrote in nation.africa.

The intention of the two journalists was noble. They sought to show how the high cost of living has turned the lives of many Kenyans into hell. People can’t afford even the humble cabbage. But the scribes ended up suggesting that Kenyans don’t – or even shouldn’t – eat cabbage unless they are broke. It is a survival meal for the hard times.

That is simply not true. Cabbage is eaten a lot and it is a nutrient-rich vegetable with a wide range of proven health benefits. Oudia and Maina’s reporting reinforces an ignorant narrative that it is the “poor man’s meal”. If the two reporters didn’t believe that myth, wouldn’t they have debunked it with the facts by simply asking a nutritionist? Or Google?

The story did not spark uproar. No angry cabbage eaters, farmers and sellers poured out into the streets and village footpaths in protest carrying the vegetable: proof enough that the myth is accepted as the truth. The Nation stamped its authority on a lie.

But things quickly went downhill for one Issa Habib after he told Spice FM that ugali is “one of the most useless foods out there”. Habib explained that ugali merely fills the stomach without offering essential nutrients. People should instead focus on foods rich in protein, particularly from animal sources. “Protein should come from healthy sources, especially animal sources. I am a big advocate of animal sources because they are more bioavailable, meaning your body easily absorbs them,” he said.

The response came fast and furious. “Kenyan nutritionist receives backlash after saying ugali is most useless food,” Tuko reported. The Kenya Nutritionists and Dieticians Institute, a statutory body, condemned and disowned Habib’s views in an advisory to the Media Council of Kenya.

“Media enterprises are urged to act with due diligence and consult KNDI on expertise qualifications to ensure the public receives accurate professional health information, as investigations into this specific case have already commenced under the provisions of CAP25B,” the MCK said in a statement.

The KNDI is mandated by law to set standards and ensure quality in all matters of nutrition and dietetics. The regulator is concerned that some media houses engage “experts” to speak to the public without consulting the institute regarding professional qualifications of such persons.

“Effective immediately, media enterprises are advised to engage duly registered persons by KNDI on matters of nutrition and dietetics,” the MCK said. “Please note that engagements with non-registered persons violates Sections 33 and 36B of the Nutritionists and Dieticians Act and may lead to unnecessary litigation against both the purported expert and the media enterprise.”

This issue is bigger than just ugali and cabbage. People are becoming more conscious about what they eat because of growing public awareness of the link between food and health. The so-called lifestyle diseases are on the rise, many of them resulting from poor diet.

“Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) now account for an estimated 39 per cent of all deaths in Kenya, reflecting a dramatic shift in the country’s health burden,” The Star reported in December. “The major killers—heart disease, cancers, diabetes, and chronic respiratory conditions—are increasingly affecting younger, economically productive adults.”

There is an urgent need for reliable nutritional information. “Diets are still cereal-heavy while myths, misinformation and unchecked marketing of unhealthy foods worsen the situation,” Head of the Division of Nutrition and Dietetics at the Ministry of Health, Veronica Kirogo, said last September.

The Kenya country director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, Ruth Okowa, has warned that alongside undernutrition, overweight and obesity are rising rapidly. “More Kenyans, both young and old, are now at risk of diet-related non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases,” she said.

Nutrition is the basic component of health. The media should pay more attention to it and, crucially, ensure the nutritional information offered to the public is accurate and from competent sources. Myths and misinformation about food are potentially dangerous.

See you next week!