The people of Mzansi love to eat lekker, whether it’s just a snack or a full meal, and the most famous is the 7-colour dish. It is many families’ go-to meal on a Sunday and has to include a few basics such as rice, meat and vegetables of different colours.
Even though it’s a dish when the whole family gets to enjoy a diverse plate of food that is mouthwatering, some people may consider it an unhealthy indulgence.
However, a 7-colour meal is mostly made up of vegetables and salads, so can this mean that it meets most of our dietary and vitamin requirements in a single meal?
According to Johannesburg-based dietitian Khuthadzo Thovhakale, following a rainbow diet, which is known as a food that represents all seven colours of the rainbow, is recommended.
Variety allows for maximum nutrition
“The rainbow diet reminds us to include a variety of foods in our diets so we can get as much nutrition as possible, as recommended by the South African food-based dietary guidelines. A 7-colour meal will, however, vary depending on who cooks it, preference, and affordability,” Thovhakale explains.
Sesethu Halimana, a cook from Johannesburg underlines that to make the 7-colour dish appealing, tasty, and healthy, she incorporates vegetables, also mentioning the importance of making the meal exciting to eat but also maintaining the balance between taste and a healthy, nutritious meal.
“With my 7-colour dishes, I like to have the right amount of protein, vegetables, and starch ratios. This meal is made for people who love home-cooked meals.
“So, I believe the 7-colour meal is fairly healthy, and I take nutrition very seriously and make sure that the food serves the purpose of making consumers full while also keeping them in good health,” she says.
Palesa Dlamini from KwaZulu-Natal, who doesn’t eat seven colours only on a Sunday or festive season, says it depends on what she feels like including on her plate, but it includes vegetables and either lamb or beef stew with brown rice. She ensures to make it healthy because it’s a usual indulgence for her.
“I always think about how much spice I’ve taken and swap that for boiling the meat. I also boil the vegetables for my 7-colour dish to avoid cholesterol-related issues. The dish is, however, average health-wise because I do incorporate spices, but I do try to make it healthy for me.”
READ NEXT: Mealie meal: Mmmm … More than just a much-loved staple
Packed with healthy benefits
Thovhakale explains that one is bound to see common vegetables accompanying the meat on the 7-colour plate.
“Salads such as three-bean, coleslaw, beetroot, chakalaka, green salad, and potato salad. Veggies such as pumpkin, butternut, carrots, spinach, sweet corn, etc. These foods on their own are loaded with nutrition,” she says.
“Purple and red foods such as beetroot, tomatoes, and red onions are packed with iron, calcium, and vitamins A and C. Whereas oranges and yellows, such as butternuts and carrots, are low-calorie vegetables full of nutrients and vitamins A, beta-carotene. Greens such as spinach, lettuce, cucumbers, and kale are good sources of folic acid, iron, calcium, and many more benefits.”
She further explains the reasons why we may not get the full benefits of the 7-colour dish lie in preparation methods and food choices.
Cooking food improves digestion and increases the absorption of many nutrients. However, some cooking methods reduce several key nutrients. Cooking methods vary, such as frying, boiling, steaming, roasting, grilling, stewing, and so forth.
How well something is prepared can also determine if it’s healthy or not, for example, potatoes when fried are unhealthy but are considered healthy when boiled.
Furthermore, Thovhakale suggests a few tips to note to enjoy the 7-colour meal more healthily:
- Choose one starch to enjoy at a time and keep your serving between 100 and 200g, or one serving spoon.
- Another option is to cook brown rice and use whole wheat flour to make dumplings, which have more fibre, thus keeping you fuller for longer.
- Pre-packaged foods: There’s added sugar that comes with buying pre-packaged salads. Rather, buy fresh beetroot or dehydrated beans to make your salads so that you can limit the amount of added sugar that goes into them.
- Frying instead of grilling or roasting. To maintain the nutritional quality of food, we always recommend grilling, roasting, or steaming when it comes to veggies and meat. Frying in loads of oil and overcooking can often strip food of all its value, so bear this in mind.
- High food portions or eating too much because there is so much variety on the plate, it’s hard (and often frowned upon) to leave anything on the plate. If you have to taste everything, make sure you serve just a small taste of each dish and don’t pile up! Everything should fit onto one plate instead of heaps of food, and second helpings should be completely avoided as this leads to weight gain and sometimes bloating.
In addition, she advises people to be aware that the foods we eat today can affect our health in the future, so it is always wise to eat small meals throughout the day (three main meals and snacks in between) and drink plenty of water to allow easy digestion and prevent bloating and constipation.
ALSO READ: Reusing cooking oil can backfire on your health
Get the Health For Mzansi newsletter: Your bi-weekly dose of kasi health, wellness and self-care inspiration.
