It was early Friday morning and the morning rush was on. If you live anywhere around the Adenta –Pantang-Abokobi environs and beyond you understand what I am talking about. Even a five-minute delay at home can mean sitting in traffic for what sometimes feels like a dozen light years. Thankfully this time, the children were home on vacation so we had less to rush about. We finally set off around 6:10 am and judging by normal Friday traffic standards, the trip to the Ridge area would take about one hour thirty minutes, so we were expecting to arrive at work latest by 7.40 am.

The traffic moved quite smoothly from Adenta right through until we got to the French school area at East Legon. That was when the madness begun. Two-lane streets were rapidly converted to four-lane streets, thus obstructing flow of oncoming traffic. Regular users of the road including myself were perplexed at the heavy nature of the traffic; and on a Friday too! We endured the slow moving bumper to bumper traffic with the occasional exchange of insults between drivers, and spent a whole hour between east Legon and the Shangri-la Hotel area. As we climbed the gentle slope between the boom junction and the Shangri-La area, it all begun to make sense. A large mammy track laden/overloaded with yams was parked right on that gentle slope, and was straddling about half of the three-lane street, forcing all cars to move in a single file at that point. This indeed was the cause of all the trouble for the morning. Obviously being so heavily loaded, (yams are very heavy tubers, an average sized yam weighs between 2.5 to 5 kg, some can weigh far more! ), the truck could not climb that gentle slope and had developed a fault as a result and was therefore stuck in the middle of the road. And come to think of it all it contained was yams! I could not help but notice the look of disdain on the faces of motorists as they drove by and discovered that we had all been held up by a truck loaded with yams of all food items! I was fascinated; yams causing traffic jams!

From taking diet histories of patients prior to counseling, I have observed, that when given the choice, many working Ghanaians would gladly have rice, fufu, banku or kenkey for lunch rather than yam. Talk of the stone that the builders rejected….! Instantly, I saw an opportunity to spread the news on the nutritional value of yams, after all they are important enough to cause traffic jams! Probably, if their nutritional value was known, motorists using the road that morning would have regarded the obstruction more kindly.

Yams are starchy tubers that are high in Vitamin C, dietary fiber, Vitamin B6, potassium, and manganese; while being low in saturated fat and sodium. Vitamin C, dietary fiber and Vitamin B6 all play crucial role in promoting good health. Furthermore, a product that is high in potassium and low in sodium, coupled with low saturated fat content, as is the case with yam, is likely to produce a good potassium-sodium balance in the human body, and so protect against osteoporosis and heart disease. Yam products generally have a lower glycemic index (this term refers to the rate at which a food is converted to sugar in the digestive tract) than potato products, which means that they will provide a more sustained form of energy, and give better protection against obesity and diabetes, than other starchy foods of higher glycemic index. Yams in themselves are not fattening like most other starch foods. It is when it is eaten in large quantities, and when it is fried that it becomes high in calories and hence, may contribute to unnecessary weight gain. The watchword is moderation and fry only occasionally. Looking at yam’s nutritional profile above, it’s not bad at all and can play a key role in a healthy eating plan. So next time you see a truckload of yams obstructing flow of traffic, remember it has a myriad health benefits.

On a more serious note I think something should be done about the morning traffic on the Adenta- Tetteh Quarshie interchange stretch. I don’t know what (I’m only a dietitian!), but I believe the experts and stakeholders can do something about the situation. Enjoy your day and don’t forget to have some boiled yam and palaver sauce for lunch today.

Laurene Boateng