Assessing Selected Local Nigerian Foods for Inclusion into the Developed Food Exchange List

Abstract

Food exchange lists were initially developed based on the establishment of principles of good nutrition, as a dietary management tool used for quantifying diets correctly for people with diabetes. This has overtime progressed to a general meal planning tool. However, the existing food exchange lists for selected local foods in Nigeria contain only a few food items. Therefore, an inclusion of more food items to the current food exchange list for Nigeria will improve its usefulness.
Objective: This aimed at developing a food exchange list with more local foods commonly consumed in Nigeria. This study addressed the need for inclusion of more commonly consumed Nigerian local foods in the food exchange list for Nigeria and the need for it in nutrition intervention.
Methods: In this study, a total of seventeen (17) food items were sampled. The food items were purposefully selected by certain criteria, which includes most importantly that they were not included in the existing food exchange list for Nigeria. The food samples were grouped according to the methods of cooking used and a procedure was used to determine the cooked weights and conversion factors.
Results and Conclusion: A Food Exchange List was developed for selected local foods commonly consumed in Nigeria. It also includes conversion factors for raw foods to cooked foods and the weight and household measures of cooked foods that are equivalent to 10g and 15g carbohydrates to be used in meal planning.