She makes and sells ready-to-cook vegetables out of produce from her own farm or produce she preferably buys from local farms. “When I make a dish, as a Nutritionist, I make choices that ensure a typical package is packed with nutrition,” said ‘Matumane Matela, the National University of Lesotho (NUL) trained Nutritionist.
Today, we examine an interesting story of the lady who is determined to ensure that you eat healthy despite your busy schedule.
It started with her experiences in life.
She describes herself as an extremely busy woman. She likes getting things done. As the busy amongst us will say, the busier you become, the less you watch your diet.
She couldn’t escape the trap!
“My busy schedule meant that I ended up eating junk and I was gaining weight,” she said. With time, she came to her senses. As a nutritionist, she recalled that the best way to preach was to preach by example. So was she preaching what she practised? Clearly she wasn’t. She had to find an option to maintain the busy schedule and eat healthy at the same time.
The beautiful thing about nutrition is that the healthiest foods are the closest to us: Fruits and Vegetables.
Ya!
Some scientists even claim that our bodies seem to be designed to thrive on fruits and vegetables, “have you ever wondered why looking at a ripe raw peach on a tree is mouth-watering but looking at a fat cow isn’t?” asked one scientist.
Well whether we were designed for fruits and vegetables or not, the truth is that they are good for our bodies. That’s what good science tells us.
And we somehow “know it” too if you have heard about anything called intuition.
So one day she found herself increasingly eating fruits and vegetables. It’s easier to change a religion that a diet, the say. So it is commendable that she changed her diet at all. “The idea was to chop as much vegetables as possible and put them in a fridge so that in future, I will just pull them out and cook.”
She wasn’t proposing something new.
Who amongst us doesn’t enjoy the convenience of just pulling up chopped frozen vegetables and cooking?
Little did she know that what she was doing was putting her on a path to a brilliant business. It took a post on a social media to achieve just that. “I took a pic of the chopped and packaged vegetables and posted them on my social media account. The reaction was swift. I began getting questions like, “how much?””
It immediately dawned on her that she could be sitting on a great business idea, after all.
So she gave it a try and started selling.
To her surprise, people started buying. In fact, “I get orders for my products almost on a daily basis.” That is how interested people really are. This to an extend that her business now gets up to four irregular employees, she included, when the demand is high.
She said her training in Agriculture, Home Economics and Nutrition has helped her to give a thought into what she was doing. For instance, where possible, she grows her own crops and sell them as first preference. She has grown spinach, butternut, green pepper, onion, herbs and beans. She is also in the process of renting more fields to grow more vegetables.
Then she empowers Basotho producers by requesting them to supply. Going to foreign produce is the last resort.
Look at her packages and you realise something.
The “7 colours” proverb comes alive.
Those seven colours may have been designed to appeal to your eyes but that is just the tip of the iceberg. The colours of vegetables mean a lot in terms of nutrition. Each colour gives you something different. So there more colours in one meal, the merrier.
To drive this home, let’s go a scientific route for a second.
Red, Blue and Purple: These vegetables contain substances that are good at reducing the risk of stroke, cancer and memory problems.
White: The likes of onion or garlic may help lower your risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cancer and heart disease.
Orange and Yellow: Carrots immediately come to mind. These vegetables contain substances called carotenoids which may help improve your immune system and help to improve the health of your eyes. Basotho, it would appear, have long known a thing or two about the relationship between carrots and eyes. Hence the famous saying, “o jele lihoete” (s/he ate carrots), often applied to good sportsmen/women with symbolically “good eyesight.”
Green: Green is life. Green vegetables come packed with chlorophyll, a chemical that scientists believe can boost your immune system, eliminate fungus in your body, clean your blood, lead to healthy intestines and give you boundless energy.
As a bonus, her Home Economics background is such that she is armed with a host of recipes for each of the packages she sells.
She has great dreams for the future, “I want to see my products decorating the shelves of big supermarkets,” she said.
It’s time!
