5 Traditional Ghanaian Foods that Can Make You Fat

Are you a Ghanaian looking for local foods that can make you fat (like gaining healthy weight)?  If yes, chances are you’re tired of your so-called slimy build and want to add healthier pounds.

The good news is you can get more healthy fat. But you will have to adjust your eating habits to achieve to crush your goals.

If you have been looking for ways to add weight via local Ghanaian foods or wondering why you are not putting on more weight, no matter how much you eat, this resource is for you.

This article covers five local foods in Ghana that are very useful for weight gain. The post also considers a few factors that might be causing unwanted weight loss.

You might have heard so many cute sayings alluding to the fact that getting fat depends only on your gene. While genetic factors are essential, tons of other factors such as what you eat play a role too.

And to prove that, there are many individuals even with a family history of the so-called skinny build who suddenly became overweight.

What Makes You Gain Weight

To put on more weight, your body has to store more calories than it burns. The term calories describe how much energy you could get from a particular food item or drink.  Taking more calories than your body burns can lead to weight gain.

The more calories your body gets from food, the more your body retains excess for other uses, including weight gain.

After your body’s calorie requirements are met, extra calories are stored in your muscles as glycogen but mostly as fat.

Now let’s consider five foods in Ghana that are good for healthy weight gain.

Traditional Ghanaian Weight Gain Foods

1. Ghanaian Chicken Drumsticks

This is a Ghanaian grilled chicken recipe prepared from roasted or baked chicken and seasoned with ginger, garlic, and pepper. Depending on preferences, the choice of ingredients may vary with different individuals.

Roasted chicken is high in calories, especially when a chicken leg is used. According to MyFoodData, roasted chicken leg contains 475 calories per 258 grams of serving.

Chicken meat packs more calories needed by your body for healthy weight gain. Apart from that, other nutrients such as protein, fat, and sodium found in the food are very useful for organs in your body.

What’s more, chicken meat can be found anywhere in Ghana. To increase your odds of getting more weight, the baked chicken drumstick is a delicacy you can add to your diet.

ALSO READ: 10 Popular Ghanaian Foods and their Health Benefits

2. Ashanti Chicken

Ashanti is a deboned chicken prepared altogether with mashed, boiled yam. Another variation of the recipe uses Jollof rice in place of yam. The recipe was first prepared using Ashanti Chicken—a chicken of Ghana origin. But today, you can use almost any chicken breed.

Whole deboned chicken with rice contains carbohydrates, protein, fats, sodium, vitamin A, vitamin C, and other essential nutrients.

Regardless of the serving size, chicken meat is calorie-dense. Yam and rice are both excellent sources of carbohydrates. And carbohydrates dense foods provide substantial amounts of calories.

Therefore, combining deboned chicken with either boiled yam or jollof rice is an excellent way to add more fat. Apart from its weight benefits, the nutrients in Ashanti Chicken will provide more nutritional values and health benefits.

3. Ghanaian Groundnut Soup

Also called peanut butter, groundnut soup is made from ingredients such as peanut, tomatoes, onions, and chicken.

Per 100g of serving, peanut butter contains 588 calories. Also, the dish is an excellent source of carbohydrates, protein, fat, and other essential nutrients required by the body.

The soup goes well with most fufu recipes such as pounded yam, pounded cassava, or pounded plantain. This means you won’t be restricted to a particular meal to add fat.

The items that reside in the preparation are everyday ingredients you can find almost everywhere. Therefore, this groundnut soup recipe will be easy to incorporate into your diet.

4. Ghanaian Caramel Coconut Balls

Ghanaian caramel coconut balls recipe is made from coconut meat, lemon juice, butter, and sweet caramel. The dish contains protein, carbohydrates, calcium, magnesium, potassium, fiber, and other essential nutrients.

Per 480 g of fresh coconut meat, the caramel coconut dish contains 283 calories. By incorporating the Ghanaian caramel coconut balls into your diet, your chances of adding weight increase as the food contain more calories. You will also get other health and nutritional values.

ALSO READ: 10 Popular African Breakfast Food Ideas

5. Ghanaian Atadwe Milk

Also called tiger nut pudding, Ghanaian Atadwe milk is made from tiger nut juice prepared with blended rice or rice flour. Varieties of the nut include brown, black, and yellow tiger nuts.

Tiger nuts are excellent sources of protein, carbohydrates, fat, iron, vitamin E, vitamin C, phosphorus, and other essential nutrients. Antioxidants found in the nuts defend the body against rapid aging health conditions such as heart disease and cancer.

You can enjoy the Ghanaian Atadwe milk with spicy foods. This means you have different choices of food to pair with the treat.

In retrospect, all the foods we have mentioned above are good for healthy weight gain because they have fat content, and most of them are calorie-dense. These are all requirements that need to be in place if you want to add fat.

READ ALSO: 10 African Foods that Help You Gain Weight

Other Factors that Hinders Healthy Weight Gain

Certain health conditions such as thyroid problems, celiac disease, type 1 diabetes, cancer, and infections could prevent you from adding weight no matter how high your food intake is.

If you feel like you have an underlying health condition preventing you from adding more weight, consult your doctor or a qualified nutritionist.

Conclusion

The above five foods can be easily prepared as their ingredients are readily available in every part of Ghana. Not only do they provide more fat and calories, but also the foods offer other nutritional and health benefits. We hope you find something desirable and suitable for you.

And if you think you have any health condition preventing you from adding healthy weight, consult with your physician for the best advice. Meanwhile, weight gain is not everyone. Some people are genetically engineered to be slim. It’s best to love your body the way it is and strive to be healthy, instead of forcing your way to weight gain. Avoid using unconfirmed or random supplements for weight gain.