Speech About Bahamian Food

If I told you that, right now, most Bahamians are probably thinking something along the lines of, “Man, I could go for some crack conch right now!”, would you believe me? Most likely you would, because Bahamians, characteristically, tend to have similar eating habits, irrespective of age, gender, or oriental island; We like large portion sizes, for low prices. Thus, questions such as, “Why should I get small one snapper for ten dollars, when I could get two large snappers for the same price?”, frequently dawn the mindsets of many Bahamian nationals. But, is our inclination to larger portion sizes, and well-seasoned foods, necessarily good for us? Or, are the rising obesity rates, along with the high rate of dietary diseases, such as diabetes

Culturally, Bahamians like handsomely flavored and well-seasoned food. Thus, we add a lot of salt to our foods. We even add salt to foods that come pre-salted, such as canned goods. Canned foods, particularly, are high in sodium, as salt is used as a preservative, and companies strive to make their canned items non-perishable. These foods should not, and they do not, require any added salts; however, Bahamians still add extra salt to these foods because we don’t want our foods to taste ‘fresh’ or ‘dry.’ Thus, we continue to pile on the salt. This is an unhealthy eating habit, by far; our love affair with salt is anything but good. Our bodies only need about 2,300 milligrams of salt per day; that translates to only one teaspoon. However, Bahamians notoriously dump salt into all our dishes. We put salt in our water as it boils, into our rice, on our meats, in our pastas, etc. This over flux of salt is unnecessary, as well as exaggerated, because too much sodium causes the body to retain extra fluid. The extra fluid then, causes bloating in our faces and bodies. Moreover, high salt diets sometimes can result in high blood pressure; also, highly salted foods frequently are high in