Yellow Garri is better than White Garri

Posted by Felix Okoli on Friday August 26, 2016 at 15:13:44:

When I went to boarding school, the most commonly eaten snack in school was garri in water and this was becasue it was cheap and readily available.

Garri is a food item made of cassava after it has been peeled, grounded roasted and dried for storage so as to be used for food by boiling it. Some people however prefer eating it raw or in combination with water as a form of snack.

There are 2 colours o garri I've come to know till date and tehy are the Yellow garri and white garri. As an Igbo boy, my family has been used to eating yellow garri in our meals and we don't buy white garri. At times I also drink or eat the yellow garri and it was really a hunger stopper.

It was only when I went to boarding school in the South west that I got to meet people drinking white garri which was basically plain garri and I just joined them because yellow garri was not readily available and I have to say that white garri has it's own unique taste but I really didn't consider it a reliable form of food.

Yellow garri is made the same way white garri is made but with an addition of palm oil which makes it a bit more nutritious than white garri. White garri is just plain cassava that has been ground and roasted. White garri doesn't contain as much fat as yellow garri. Both do contain carbohydrates since they are made from cassava but yellow garri also contains vitamin E and antioxidants because of the palm oil it was mixed with.

Some people say it's not good to drink garri because it contains cyanide that could lead to poor vision or blindness but there has not been any conclusive scientific research on that. However, if garri could be mixed with other food nutrients such as palm oil which contains antioxidants before eating or drinking, it could help reduce the effects of any negative health issues that may arise from cyanide or any harmful substances it may contain.

We know that there has been many generation of Nigerians who lived longer and healthier lives with good vision even though they ate mostly garri and old based soups and so I think the effect of palm oil on garri to make it yellow and nutritious makes it a better food product to eat than white garri.

What I'm saying is that it's much safer to eat garri with palm oil based soups than alone. If you are drinking it, then it's better to drink yellow garri than white garri.