This short topic will offend your nutritionists, bakeries, local mahindi choma vendors and most restaurants…but Truth is Truth.
- Let’s Get Real: What Happens When You Cook Starches at High Heat?
Whether it’s mandazi, chapati, chips, bread crust, or roasted maize (mahindi choma)—any time you fry, roast, or bake starchy foods, you trigger a chemical disaster inside your body. Here’s what happens:
Maillard Reaction:
This is the chemical reaction between amino acids (especially asparagine) and sugars at high temperatures (above 120°C).
It makes food browned, crispy, and tasty—but at a cost.
It produces Acrylamide, Furan, AGEs (Advanced Glycation End Products), and other oxidized, inflammatory compounds.
These are not nutrients. They are slow poisons.
- The Hidden Killers Inside That Golden Crust
Acrylamide
Formed when asparagine (an amino acid found in grains and potatoes) reacts with sugars during high heat.
Classified as a “probable human carcinogen” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Damages nerves, DNA, fertility, and causes cancer.
Found in: mandazi, chips, toast, ugali crisps, biscuits, and even some breakfast cereals.
AGEs (Advanced Glycation End Products)
These are proteins or fats that are damaged by sugar and heat.
AGEs trigger chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, kidney damage, and early aging.
Worse in diabetics, hypertensives, and those with poor circulation.
Furan
Another byproduct of roasting and frying.
Linked to liver damage and potential cancer risk.
Formed especially in roasted or baked starchy foods, canned soups, and even coffee.
- Why SEED OILS Are More Dangerous Than Sugar
Many Kenyans avoid sugar (very good), but still cook everything in vegetable oils like:
Sunflower oil
Canola oil
Corn oil
Soybean oil
Vegetable blends
These are marketed as “healthy,” but they are toxic industrial lubricants not meant for human consumption.
What Happens in Your Body:
Seed oils are high in Omega-6 PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids), which oxidize easily.
When heated, they form toxic aldehydes, lipid peroxides, and trans fats.
These cause:
Cellular damage
Hormonal imbalance
Low testosterone
Brain fog and depression
Chronic inflammation and cancer
Imagine pouring paint thinner into your car’s fuel tank. That’s what using seed oils is like for your cells.
- So What Should Kenyans Do Instead?
A. Safer Cooking Methods
- Boiling – Ideal for maize, potatoes, cassava, sweet potatoes, arrowroots.
- Steaming – Preserves nutrients in vegetables and softens meat without destroying fat-soluble vitamins.
- Shallow Pan Cooking – Use tallow to slow-cook fish, liver, or meat on low heat.
- Fermenting – Uji ya wimbi, fermented vegetables, and fermented milk (mursik) restore gut health.
- Sun-Drying & Smoking – Traditional preservation methods with no oil, no sugar, no cancer.
B. Better Cooking Fats
Tallow (Beef Fat) – Stable at high heat, zero toxins.
Butter / Ghee – Excellent for flavor and safe when gently heated.
Coconut Oil – Also stable, but more expensive.
NEVER deep fry in seed oils.
If you must fry fish, do it once a week, slowly, with beef tallow or no oil at all in a well-seasoned pan.
- Eat Like a Tribal Warrior, Not a Factory Slave
Animal-Based Power Foods:
Beef, Goat, Fish, Chicken
Matumbo (tripe), Liver, Kidneys, Heart
Beef Tallow, Bone Soup, and Eggs
Strong Plant Allies:
Kunde (cowpeas), Managu, Terere, Pumpkin leaves
Boiled Nduma, Sweet Potatoes, Boiled Mahindi
Pumpkin, Avocados, Coconut
Seasonal fruits: Pawpaw, bananas (boiled if starchy), mango, guava
These nourish the body, sharpen the mind, and fuel masculinity and fertility.
- Why This is Urgent for Kenya
Every week:
More men get pot bellies, fatigue, and low libido
More women suffer from hormonal disorders, fibroids, infertility (PCOS).
More children are addicted to fried foods and sugary bread
All because we abandoned ancestral wisdom and replaced it with factory food.
If you want to lead a strong tribe:
Reject modern cooking lies.
Eat like your grandfather.
Feed your children with real food, not chemical experiments.
- Tribal Orders: What You Must Do Today
STOP eating mandazi, crisps, toasted bread, deep-fried chips, and mahindi choma.
BOIL your maize, sweet potatoes, cassava.
USE TALLOW or shallow pans instead of frying.
AVOID SEED OILS completely.
EAT MORE: beef, eggs, liver, matumbo, bone broth, greens, avocado, pumpkin.
FEED YOUR FAMILY with love and knowledge, not addiction and disease.
The Tribal Chief eats like a king, fights like a warrior, and thinks like a god. And it all begins with food.
