A wave of preventable chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension, once the affliction of the elderly, is now striking down Ghanaians in their 30s and 40s, and a leading plant medicine expert points to a single, culpable source: the modern Ghanaian plate.
Dr. Appiah Alfred Ampomah, former Deputy Director of the Centre for Plant Medicine Research, has issued a stark warning, urging a national return to the ancient Hippocratic principle, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food.” He argues that embracing this philosophy is not just a lifestyle choice but a critical public health strategy that could dramatically cut the nation’s disease burden and save billions in healthcare costs.
“A few years ago, when you hear about diabetes, hypertension, it was 60 plus. But now young people have hypertension, diabetes, and it’s not good. People are fat… it’s not good,” Dr. Ampomah stated. “But I think a lot of people don’t know.”
The Daily Choice: Prevention or Poison?
Dr. Ampomah frames every meal as a decisive vote for either health or sickness. He calls for a conscious shift in mindset, where Ghanaians must be “very selective” and consistently ask, “If I eat this food, what are the health benefits?”
“What we eat can either provide some health benefit or it can make us sick,” he explained. “Your food can create various disease conditions for you, or it can even prevent diseases.”
He contrasts the traditional Ghanaian diet—rich in natural, fibrous foods and combined with preventive herbs—with the aggressive marketing of processed foods like spaghetti, pizza, and sugar-laden carbonated drinks. This cultural shift, he suggests, lies at the heart of the new public health crisis.
A Lost Heritage of Wellness
The expert pointed to the wisdom of ancestors who intuitively combined “nutraceuticals” with their meals. “You wake up in the morning, you take dudo [a herbal preparation], and then you take your food… and you are not dealt with malaria, you don’t have worm infestation… and you are healthy and strong always.”
This proactive approach to health, he argues, has been replaced by a reactive one, where the population treats the symptoms of poor diet with medicine instead of preventing illness through nutrition.
A Call for National Re-education
The solution, according to Dr. Ampomah, is a massive, government-led public education campaign. He explicitly calls on institutions like the Ministry of Health and the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to “talk about it seriously.”
“They like [pizza and soft drinks] because the knowledge is not there,” he said, referencing the biblical adage, “My people perish for a lack of knowledge.” He believes that if people truly understood the long-term consequences of daily refined sugars, flours, and fats, consumer behavior would change.
The potential payoff is immense. Taking this simple statement seriously “can cut down our disease burden… save us a lot of money… and the little money that we save, we can use it for other infrastructure development.”
Dr. Ampomah’s message is a clear prescription: the path to a healthier, wealthier nation does not lie solely in new hospitals and drugs, but in a collective return to the healing power of conscious, natural eating. The medicine, he insists, is already on our tables—if we only choose to see it
