In many major supermarkets, it is given that you will find certain products. You just visit Shoprite, Spa, Addas etc. and you will be welcomed by multicoloured layers of beverages, cookies, toiletries, games and proteins. But in how many of them will you find that highly medicinal jewel called bitter kola?
None!
Perhaps because it is too local. Or it is too bitter for the elevated lips of many crowds of the typical supermarket. Anyway, how many children, who are major determiners of what parents buy, will lead their fathers and mothers to the shed where bitter kola is on display?
But EveryDayLagos has discovered a supermarket that dares to be different. This is New Town, in Arepo, Ogun State, in the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway axis. Our correspondent was very surprised when it saw the highly medicinal seed among other related ones that you would ordinarily find with petty traders that include mallams. And, believe you me, although it is not too cheap, it moves fast, as observed by our correspondent, in the past few months that he watched the stock get depleted and replenished.
To buttress how smart the supermarket formerly named Integral seems to be, you won’t find bitter kola in its competitors such as Wisebuyers and Krosty, all in Arepo, a town developed and mostly populated by people who work in Lagos. It (Arepo) was, indeed, opened up by media personnel which announced its existence to the world when it established the Journalists Estate there in the early 200s.
Meanwhile here are some of the benefits of bitter kola, according to experts:
– It has good effects on cardiovascular health
– An anti-diabetic agent
– It is aphrodisiac
It protects against malaria
– It has Antibacterial Properties
– It’s capable of protecting the liver
– Bitter kola has been used over the years to fight infections from the common cold to hepatitis
– Useful in fighting inflammation
– Bitter kola haspositive effects on the digestive system
– Relieves Rheumatism Due to Anti-Inflammatory Effects
– Contains Antioxidants for Immune Boosting and Brain Health
– Relieves Rheumatism Due to Anti-Inflammatory Effects
– Bitter kola has Anti-diarrhoea Effects
– Anticancer and wound healing
– Antidiabetic Agent