PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 2012
PAGE 30
We need a mixture of cassava flour and wheat flour to fight diabetes, says nutritionist Following a recent statement credited to one of the National Assembly members, disapproving proposition by farmers to include at least 3040 percent cassava flour in all cassava confectionaries and the need to encourage citizens to eat more of cassava bread than the wheat bread, Professor of nutrition and President, Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Prof. Ignatius Onimawo, in this interview with Mohammed Kandi, holds contrary opinion. Excerpts:
W
ith the emphasis on food fortification, would you say Nigeria is on the right path in addressing the problem nutritional deficit? Well, you fortify food for so many reasons. First of all, when you observe a gap either in particular micro nutrient relating to deficiencies you find in the populace, then you think of ways by which you can remedy that. For instance, there are three different levels: Supplementation in which the micro nutrient in question is given in the form of capsules or tablets or added in some food for children. But that is not sustainable because it is so expensive to import such micro nutrient dense, either powders or capsules. However, the second option is fortification. In fortifying food, we look at a particular food that we believe is available to majority of the people. And one thing is that if you have a centrally processed food system like you have in developed counties, is easier for people to make that demand. But in Nigeria you realize that many of our foods are not centrally processed. So the only foods that are fortified right now are the flour; the wheat flours, the maize flour in form of semolina, you also have the vegetable oil, the sugar and the salt that is iodized. These are centrally processed to some extent. Therefore is easier to use them as vehicle for fortification. But you know, many Nigerians do not eat these foods as stable. Therefore we are thinking of a situation where you have small holders within each community, for instance where they make maize flour, rice mill and those kind of small holders within communities. A similar thing was demonstrated in Adamawa State about two years ago. It could also help to add to the nutrient that is deficient to the food particularly; micro nutrient that is the focus of food fortification. But again there another option, we call the dietary diversification which is the best option in which case the person gets all the nutrients from his diversified diets that he or she consumes because all the foods, if you can combine them appropriately to have an adequate diet, then all the micro nutrients
President Goodluck Jonathan and Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Ayodeji, during the launching of cassava bread in Abuja. will be available. But something happened recently in Nigeria which we need to celebrate the issue of biofortification where cassava that contained yellow flesh was found to contain adequate beta carotene which is the major source of Vitamin A. I was at the celebration at Umudike, Abia State, when it was launched and what that showed was that, there is no home in Nigeria where cassava products are not consumed. If we can develop that in such way that the cassava that is now naturally fortified with Vitamin A, it will become our source of carbohydrate foods, say for garri, fufu or whatever way you wish to prepare your food with cassava products, then indirectly, you are taking in may be enough Vitamin A that you do not need to bother so much about other source because cassava products are well known in Nigeria and there is no where they are not consumed. It is breakthrough in a way for Nigerian people. Firm issues are being raised that comparing quality of wheat flour with cassava flour is almost impossible, is that the right thinking? I must say that I was alarmed when a motion was moved in the Federal House of Assembly and some information was provided that cassava was food that will lead to increase in diabetes. Such motion should not have been because in the first instance, the prevalence that was quoted from that report that the diabetes rate in Nigeria is between 20-30 percent is completely not true. The diabetes rate in Nigeria is less than 10 percent. In fact, we have not done any recent survey as that was just a projected percentage. The last survey that was done was around 1992 and it was not even a nationwide survey and put the diabetic rate at 2.5 percent. From 1992 till now, there is projection that it must have increased but up to the point of about 9.5 percent. So the issue of the issue of 20-30 percent does not arise.
The other was that, since the person who was making that motion said that cassava flour when added to wheat flour to make bread will increase the rate of diabetes is completely untrue because when we talk about diabetes, there two things you talk about. The Gglycemic index (GI) which measures how a carbohydrate-containing food raises blood glucose, and the Glycemic Load. Now, foods with low Glycemic Index are foods that diabetics are advised to consume and cassava is not among the high Glycemic Index Food. In fact, wheat flour has high Glycemic Index from between 7072 while cassava has a Glacemic index between 46 and 60.That is the
Prof. Ignatius Onimawo
range for cassava. Having that at the back of our minds, it then means that when you mix cassava flour with low Glycemic Index with wheat flour that has high Glycemic Index, the blend that will come with the Glycemic Index will come down. In essence, if we are going to attack diabetes, then the mix of cassava flour and wheat flour is even the right step to start with because by the time you combine cassava flour with that wheat flour, the Glycemic Index of the overall product will come down because that of white bread is 70 as at now. So when you bring cassava flour into it, it may bring it down to about 60 percent, thereby giving a better product that will fall within the
range of medium Glycemic Index food. Right now, bread as it is, is in high Glycemic Index group. So with the coming of cassava flour, you can bring it down to a medium Glacemic Index food. Therefore, I don’t know where the person got his information from. There was a survey that was conducted in Kenya and in that survey they found that out of over 1, 380 people that were studied, they got their energy or calorie intake from cassava. About 86 percent of that number got their calorie intake from cassava and none of them was diabetic. In the same survey, those who were diabetic in that community, they found that they rarely took cassava. They were eating other sorts of food hence cassava is not implicated as such anywhere as the causative effects for diabetes that is the point I am making. What is your advise to the government and the people? My advise is that the policy of government on the inclusion of cassava flour into wheat flour for the production of bread is a step in the right direction and I thought the argument were going to be , may be the crumb structure of the bread, may be the weight of the bread these were going to be issues because of the fact that there were no gluten in cassava flour. But that is not the argument. Even then, the American government through the programme we had in Lagos recently have shown that even in such situations where you use a product that do not contain gluten, you should add about 5 percent soya beans flour to that particular formulation, then the loaf file improves and therefore the crumb structure of the bread also improves. We have communities in Nigeria that do soya beans. Benue State is an example. I think is another opportunity for government to encourage soya beans producers so that they include 5 percent soya beans flour along with the 40 percent of cassava flour to the wheat flour to produce our bread. And that is where we have several advantages. One, the Glycemic Index will be lower because the GI soya bean is lower than that of cassava. So GI will be low and soya bean contain a lot of protein and protein will be good in bread and the crumb structure will be fine and the taste will be better and it will be more nourishing than the other way. I want to state that there is need for nutrition education in Nigeria. Federal government should partner with the Nutrition Society of Nigeria and other institutions so that we can take this message to the grass root and to every Nigerian even to the National Assembly. In fact, it is good that the National Assembly member raised this issue perhaps because he has interest of Nigerians at heart. He didn’t want Nigerians to become diabetic and therefore, now that the information has come, is good that they too be informed about this so that they will be better placed to serve the Nigerian public.