Zimbabweans may be late to the party on most things, but the health revolution certainly isn’t one of them. For the last year and a half, there’s been a dieting trend that has taken the country by storm: Banting.
Admittedly the trend went through our traditional filter down South, but once it reached our shores, Zimbo’s gravitated to it with great enthusiasm. There’s no doubt about it: Zimbabweans love #banting.
Banting is a low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) diet, named after William Banting, the first person to do it in the 1800’s. Its new insurgency in the 21st century came by way of Professor Tim Noakes in his book The Real Meal Revolution (easy to order online if you want to dig into it). The principle idea of banting is to follow certain dietary practices that make your body switch from burning carbs for energy to burning fat.
Perhaps its popularity comes from its non-threatening and easy to follow guidelines. There are no tedious recipes or complex calculations with this one and the principles are simple: Eat foods that are high in fat, low in carbohydrates and are medium in protein. Banting is all about eating clean and fresh while eliminating unnecessary eating or snacking. Discipline, a change in eating habits, and a healthy exercise plan is the key to using Banting to help lose those unwanted kilos.
Banting has a large following online, with Zimbabweans really getting behind the popular hashtags #LHCF and #Banting.
The largest Banting group on Facebook is the “Banting 7 Day Meal Plans” group, which has over 500,000 members. The group has members from all over the world, including many Zimbabweans.
In true Zimbo fashion, though, we have our own budding online group, which is specific to the growing community in our country. The group is called Banting in Zimbabwe and got 148 members within 48 hours of starting. The group is currently at 176 but should see exceptional growth once word gets spread.
If you want to see how the trend is affecting your friends and fellow Zimbabweans, you can simply search #banting on Facebook. (Facebook will make sure to show you results from your friends first, then the region you live, and then the rest of the world). Take a look and see some of the amazing results people are experiencing.
As always, every trend has a limited lifespan, but it’s too early to tell how long this one will last. However, seeing how many new converts come around every day, this one may take a while to phase out.
Kefalos is committed to creating a wide range of products suitable for people with different dietary needs. Our Kefalos Double cream yoghurt really suits people who are #banting because of its Lactose-free properties. We also have a wide range of cheeses that compliment this lifestyle. If you would like us to do more posts on #banting, let us know in the comments below and we may just start a series.