African Heritage Diet Health Benefits: What Modern Research Reveals
African Plants and Food as Medicine: What Modern Research Is Revealing In many parts of Africa, traditional medicine remains central to daily life. According to the World Health Organization, up to 80 percent of people in some African countries rely on traditional medicine for primary healthcare needs. Far from being a relic of the past, plant-based knowledge systems continue to shape community health practices across the continent. Recent scholarship has renewed global attention on African heritage diets and medicinal plants. A 2025 study mapping the health effects of traditional African diets found that replacing Western foods with indigenous staples led to measurable improvements in markers associated with inflammation within two weeks. Conversely, adopting a Western-style diet had a negative impact. The research drew comparisons between African heritage diets and the Mediterranean diet, noting similar emphasis on plant-based whole foods, fiber, and polyphenol-rich ingredients that...