Butchers in Lagos State said something about their business last weekend which, in my view, explained why I have been unable to afford red meat on the dinning table for sometime. That was before I finally gave it up for reasons order than its high cost…and went for chicken heart. I am not done. For I plan to migrate to chicken head and eye, and then to fish head and eye. It is not a crazy, but a pragmatic idea. It is adventurous, budget cutting and nutritionally gainful. I will explain it all, in due course.
You must be a supper star or a money bag in Nigeria’s economy of today if you still regularly eat red meat or oily fish in your meals. I gave up red meat years ago to save my gums from regular tooth picks injury and infections, and to prevent cholesterol from building in my blood steam which, for decades,has been kind enough to give me a 110/70 blood pressure. The original Titus fish, in which Omega-3 fat is abundant, became my favorite protein source from the animal kingdom until conspirators in the economy took the price beyond the roof. I did not sit, arms folded, groaning, as many people do when they are confronted by opposition and friction. I look for away out of any trouble, believing that I will be stronger at the other end of the equation if I learn to ride the storm and to overcome it.That was what I did in 2024 when Titus fish, like red meat, went beyond my reach. I will tell you soon about my secret of adaptation which still gives me, at reasonable cost,good quality animal protein in my diet. I hope that I have not already let out the bird’s head in the head line.
I am not one of those incorrigible optimists who believe you can rebuild over night an economy which probably took about four decades to damage.I do not believe in reforms either. You cannot destroy three floors of a six-storey building and hope to restore the original form by merely patching here and there the damaged structure. To do a better job, the debris will be removed, the remainder of the building will be knocked down, and a new construction would be made on the site. A damaged economy is not different from a bomb blasted house. This is saying I cannot see any light-on as yet on the dinning table for red meat and Titus fish, irrespective of promises by icons of the economy that eldorado is on the way or that we have rowed the boat to its shores.
Wasn’t it only last weekend that the association of Butchers in Lagos appeal to the government to come to its rescue? I do not know how the butchers wanted the government to attain to their business headaches. They say that, before now, they slaughtered more than five thousand cows for the market very day. Now, however, the market can absorb only a little more than 2000 cows every day. That means more than half of their business is gone, has more meat eaters that cannot afford cow beef.How would they be able to afford it when, as the butchers said, a cow they previously bought for about four N400,000 now sells for about N1.2 million? What we need to do is to revolutionise production of animal protein sources. In this column two years ago and again last year, I suggested how about three trillion rabbits maybe farmed all over Nigeria within one or two years for home consumption and for exports to China which was spending billions of US Dollars every year on Zimbabwean rabbits.( These articles can be read on my Facebook page…John Olufemi Kusa). The ideal originated from an NGO on farming I was invited to by a gentleman from Edo State. Our Chairman was Brigadier Samuel Ogbemudia (rtd),formal military governor of Bendel State ( today’s Edo and Delta states), now of blessed memory. Formal President Shehu Shagari was our life patron. I enlarged our modest ideas to suggest that President Bola Tinubu, all governors, all senators, all Representatives, all House of Assembly members, and all local government chairmen and councillors, motivated by the President, set up rabbit farms, each of one thousand rabbits, in their constituencies. This should give us more than three thousand rabbit farms and three million rabbits.If two million rabbits of these three million rabbits produce 20 rabbits each in one year, that would mean a conservative 40 million rabbits in one year.This figure is conservative because the would be almost one million baby rabbits which will mature within that time frame and whose productivity is unaccounted for in this calculation. Additionally, our three thousand model rabbit farms may ignite the emergence of rabbit farms double its number in that time frame.We may also have rabbit farms in prisons and faculties of agriculture in universities.The universities and ministries of agriculture will provide support services to these farms.We would thereby have generated two directions in national orientation… Providing more animal protein for the population and creating jobs for young rabbit farmers and rabbits feed producers.(Will Mr Bayo Onanuga be kind enough to share this idea with the President and the First Lady? Will Mr Gbenga Akosile be kind enough to share it with the governor of Lagos State? Lagos State is Nigeria’s leader state. Thousands of rabbit farms in Lagos State will not only create jobs but improve VAT income and also spare-head a Nigerian rabbit farming revolution which should cut protein food cost.I almost weep when I remember the huge land forms in Northern Nigeria and its inert population that may significantly profit from this idea but is stealing iron and steel nationwide or weighing Boko Haram war upon itself) These model farms will trigger emergence of bigger farms in future.If I may make a confession: now that many persons have again invaded my rare sources of protein, I have decided to put to use in my backyard garden the rabbit cages I bought in the late 1990s.
Can you blame me? I went without vegetable for some time when the price became untouchable. I almost cried because I knew the value to radiant health, especially for Septuagenarians like me, in their antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, phenolic compounds, not to mention their chlorophyll and oxygen.So, pulling myself together, and helped by Udeme James who keeps the flower beds, a vegetable garden emerged in the flower beds instead of ornamental or decorative plants.My household had more than enough vegetable to eat.The gardens became so bushy that something had to be done about it.So,on one February 2025, that is about five days ago, the first batch of vegetable for the vegetable market brought home 2,500 naira at give away prices.That is a lesson to learn from not sitting idle, groaning and be moaning discomfitures of the economy and their negative impact but riding over their storms, gaining control over them and landing on the other side of the equation, mentally, psychically and spiritually healthier and stronger.I almost shed tears at about the same time, though.This was when I had to cut down two pawpaw trees that had begun to give me a whole pawpaw for breakfast everyday.Whenever I ate a whole pawpaw and its seeds for breakfast,I had no need for lunch and, but for gluttony,I should do without dinner as well.I cut them down because they were growing too tall and toward high tension electricity cables far above the fence line.I believe they were searching for energy and were pulled in by the magnetic field of the cables. So, to avoid trouble, I had to cut them down, hoping that they would regrow as dwarf plants. If my other pawpaw trees do well this rain season, another N2,500 more could come in every day from the fruit market!
Trouble
I saw trouble coming for many persons who were rigid about red meat and fish as their only sources of animal protein.I feel sorry as well for persons, especially children, who have been going without animal proteins.There are proteins in plants, no doubt, but they are not comprehensive enough to provide all the protein to which the human body has been used for thousands of years.The human body is made essentially of proteins and minerals.The proteins which make up the hair, the skin, the eye , the soft tissue and the muscles e.t.c are made up of varying combinations of small molecules called amino acids. Many human biology researchers say 20 amino acids, nine of them essential amino acids,11 non essential or semi essential, form our bodies.The body can convert one non-essential amino acid to another.This means the human body can manufacture some amino acids as needed by transforming one form of amino acids into another. However, it cannot manufacture an essential amino acid.This have to come from the diet. Plants can supply some essential amino acids but in small amount.Even then, a few essential amino acids may be missing in particular plant. However,spirulina, the blue-green algae, stands out…it provides all 20 amino acids, including the nine essential amino acids.This is why, as I may mention later in this column, it helps many HIV- challenged persons to build high CD4 counts, freeze or minimise viral load and improve immunity.
Therefore, we humans,obtain large amount of essential amino acids from animals sources.This is why persons, especially children, who do not eat enough meat and fish may easily develop health troubles, particularly HIV. Many studies have linked HIV to essential amino acid deficiency and selenium deficiency.I hope to address this question in a later column in the light of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to withdraw financial supports for HIV challenged persons world wide.This means the cost of anti-retroviral drugs may sky-rocket, many patients may be unable to afford them and their illness may proceed to the stage of full blown AIDS.The column I spoke of will address plant medicines which prevents progression of HIV to AIDS, and have helped many HIV challenged persons to throw off the yoke.
Beside HIV,deficiency of amino acids and essential amino acids can cause several diseases which may include…Kwashiorkor,marasmus, anemia,impaired wound healing,muscle wasting and sarcopenia,Impaired immune function,cognitive impairment, skin and hair loss.Equally serious is vitamin B12 deficiency. Many do not have Vitamin B12.It is abundant in animal sources. Its deficiency may cause the following diseases and, perhaps, more…Anaemia, megaloblastic Anaemia,Neurological problem(numbness or tingling in the hands and feet,weakness and difficulty walking),fatigue, digestive issues, and Neuropathy.In Megaloblastic Anemia, the bone marrow produces excessively large red blood cells which cannot efficiently deliver oxygen to the cells.
Crayfish
With not enough money for red meat,Titus fish and poultry chicken and egg, both of which are no-go areas because of their poisoning by poultry farming practices, my household substituted crayfish as a protein source.In a household of four persons, it made good sense to spend N18,000 a month on three paints bucket of crayfish than N4,000 a day or N120,000 a month on two pieces of Titus fish every day.Here is the nutritional sense in every 100g of crayfish…
Protein 19-20g high-quality protein with all essential amino acids;Fat 0.5-1g low in fat, with a mix of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids;Carbohydrates 0-1g very low in carbs;Fiber 0g no dietary fiber;Vitamin B12 20-30 DV;Selenium 30-40% DV;Vitamin E 10-15% DV;Vitamin B6 5-10% DV;Niacin 5-10% DV; Phosphorus 5-10% DV; Copper 5-10% DV; Zinc 3-5% DV,Iron 2-3% DV and Potassium 2-3% DV. Other nutrients include..small amount Omega-3 fatty acids,and Antioxidants such as astaxanthin,which is good for vision health and shown to have anti-inflammatory properties.
Chicken heart, fish eye
To break the monotony of crayfish,two handful of which may be cooked in “concotion”or pilaf rice for four persons,we introduce chicken heart for flavour. I inform some of my acquaintances about it. Soon, they overwhelmed the local stockists.Then, I remembered my childhood days when we children relish chicken head and chicken eye,fish head and fish eye.I remembered how delicious fish eye was and the Yoruba song we sang at school for dullards in our classes…Olodo rabata, oju eja lo’mo je ( big dullard, it is only fish eye you know how to eat…you don’t know your books).I later discovered that chicken head and fish head are relish in China, Korea, Japan, and the Philippines,even if the eye are unpopular.Here is the nutritional sense in chicken heart, chicken head, fish head and fish eye… Protein 26-30per cent high-quality protein with all essential amino acids;Fat 4-6 per cent mostly unsaturated; Iron 10-15 percent of the Daily Value DV; Zinc: 10-15 per cent DV; Vitamin B12: 20-30 per cent DV
Chickeh head…Protein 20-25 per cent high-quality protein with all essential amino acids; Fat 10-15 per cent mix of saturated and unsaturated;Calcium 10-15 per cent DV;Phosphorus10-15 percent DV and Collagen.
Chicken eye… Protein 20-25 per cent high-quality protein with all essential amino acids;Fat: 10-15 per cent mix of saturated and unsaturated; Vitamin A 10-15per cent DV;Vitamin E 10-15per cent DV and Antioxidants.
Fish head…Protein 20-25 per cent high-quality protein with all essential amino acids;Fat: 10-15per cent mix of saturated and unsaturated;Omega-3 fatty acids rich in EPA and DHA, which support heart health and brain function; Calcium: 10-15per cent DV; Phosphorus 10-15 per cent DV
Fish eye…Protein 20-25 per cent high-quality protein with all essential amino acids;Fat 10-15 per cent mix of saturated and unsaturated; Vitamin A 10-15 per cent DV;Vitamin E10-15percent DV and Antioxidants.
Money scarcity: Today,money is scarce. I am lucky to still be able to keep my head above water. I owe this to the Grace of the Most High and to several personal decisions. If I do not know the prices of bread(white or wheat) or of Exeter corn beef or of margarine today,it is because I cut them from my diet in the mid-1990s.If I do not cry that egg is expensive, it is because I stopped eating it in the early 2000s. Before then, I sold about 300 crates of poultry egg very week for N200 per crate and N50 profit on each.Compare that to more than N3000 per crate today!. Consideration for my health forced those decisions. Red meat, too, disappear from my diet because I desired a healthy heart.After reading Udo Eramus’s Fats That Heal and Fat That Kill, I went for the original Titus fish.But, alas, the economy would soon balloon the price.In a household of four persons, it began to cost about N4,000 every day to eat Titus fish over lunch and dinner,if we skip breakfast, relying on groundnuts of, say, N500, ground or served crunchy, for breakfast of four whole grain pap…white corn, yellow corn, sorghum and millet.The economy spares nothing. Only the person who can adapt like the chameleon escapes its fires and blows.So,titus fish, too, had to go,and, had to come the chicken heart.Udeme James, my business assistant, discovered it while balancing the house-keeping budget. The heart, either of man or beast, has the largest deposit of CoQ10 in the body. CoQ10 and its more active form, ubiquinol, is anti-oxidant and an energy producing ingredient. A deficiency causes heart weakness and disease. So, eating chicken heart should strengthen my heart and save the cost of a CoQ10 nutritional supplement which had risen to about N80,000 for one month’s supply.
Intuitively,the chicken heart appeals to me as a replacement for red meat and Titus fish. The understanding of COQ10 today is that the more of it they have, the more the energy factories called Mitochondria that your body will produce and the more energy you would have even in ripe old age. For it is inside mitochondria that the body cell produce energy. Dr. Karl Folkers, who has been researching CoQ10 and Ubiquinol since 1952 and who has led a Danish research in which Ubiquinol helped to reverse more than 30 terminal breast cancers, say that the human heart begins to develop weakness and disease when its COQ10 level drops by about 25 percent. I always still wish I had this knowledge when my father developed Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)at 76 in 1998 and passed that year. Thus, when I learned that Chicken heart was available, I went for it to replace Cow Heart and Goat Heart, which had become too expensive.
In my search for cheaper proteins sources, there are two areas I am still afraid to venture into. These are the eye ducks and rabbits. A duck’s eye looks eerie when it is to be slaughtered. A rabbit eye is so large, clean and loving, it is difficult to touch. These are probably why on my own, I have never killed a duck or rabbit for food. Nevertheless, I would like to know where I can buy their hearts to supplement chicken heart in my meals. I hope you would explore my ideas of chicken heart,head and eye, and fish head and eye and let me know how well you enjoy these other sources of protein in the diet.
