When your change of diet causes a riot at home

You wake up one day and you realise you can’t eat broiler chicken. You realise all processed foods suck and you want organic foods, especially the green vegetables that you have not been eating enough. You can only live on sukuma wiki and spinach for far too long.

This is a potential source of conflict with Carol who likes junk food. Preparing traditional vegetables is an onerous task, same as cooking brown ugali. Yet, it seems, she may have to learn this.

 “Where will we be getting the greens from?” she asked you, incredulous when you told her of the new dietary plan.

 “For vegetables, there are some old women who sell them at affordable prices at the bus station, near OTC?” you told her matter-of-factly.

 “And who will be going for them?” she asked, alarmed.

 Carol has never been to that side of Nairobi. You know it is an impossible task, but she has to figure out how the vegetables will get home as soon she delivers. Now she can buy time, as she is pregnant.

 “You will figure it out, baby, but it will help if you will familiarise yourself with the mothers, maybe we can have one deliver them…”

 “You bring them home and we will cook them for you…” she said dismissively.

She was hardly surprised for your last Friday shocker. You arrived home with a sackful of traditional vegetables. The greens were full of stalks that had to be removed. That means the househelp and Carol had a busy weekend. You also brought a very mature cock and brown flour to announce your permanent change of diet.

You slaughtered the cock in your backyard, de-feathered it and left for them to prepare it. Carol has never cooked such a tough thing like a kienyeji chicken. She complained that it took so long to cook, you may run out of gas. She didn’t appreciate the vegetables too…

 “Mwenye alikuuzia hangetengeneza hizo mboga?” she asked, arms akimbo.

“They can, but why pay more when you guys are here?”

She didn’t take that too kindly.

As for brown ugali, it was a disaster, but the biggest room in the world is the one for improvement. She has a lot of learning to do, the better to embrace it since the house help is just as clueless.

You will be patient. Carol will grumble all she wants, but one thing you are not taking for granted anymore is your health. Your desire to tell Carol about the dangers of processed foods was not welcome at all. In fact, she was rude while dismissing your ideas of healthy foods. 

All the same, your mother will be sending the greens every Sunday via courier service and will replenish your brown flour stock as often as it runs out. Soon, you will have to teach the house help how to collect the foodstuff from the courier and thus, you will have created a culture of healthy eating in your household.

 The new mantra in your household is to keep cancer and other lifestyle diseases at bay. Your only hope is Carol embraces the idea, soon rather than later.