My African Adventure in Food & Nutrition - Part 2: Malnutrition Expedition

Coming to South Sudan I have been faced with seeing malnutrition as a common problem in kids. Many young children (under 5) at the orphanage and in the community show the obvious sign of malnutrition – a swollen abdominal. This can signify a lack of protein (kwashiorkor) or carbohydrates (marasmus). Technically though, malnutrition is when the body is missing anything it needs. With these children, because the diets are deficient, they are missing micronutrients, vitamins and minerals, as well as lacking the macronutrients. This breaks my heart.

What especially saddens me though is that this state of malnutrition has become the norm and it is not looked at with so much concern. Even when I was talking with a well-qualified nurse, he said that this (the swollen abdominal) is normal. I urged him, “No, this is not normal. Children in North America do not have these swollen bellies.” He conceded that their diet is lacking but it isn’t serious enough because it doesn’t cause long-term damage. I can agree that the children here aren't severely malnourished or wasting away, but if a growing body is not getting enough protein or carbohydrates or BOTH along with missing numerous vitamins it will affect their development.

Fortunately, tI was able to teach a seminar at the orphanage (to the leaders) about the basics of nutrition and explain the problems of malnutrition. I explained what carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are as well as vitamins and minerals. We looked at the different food groups (Vegetables, Fruit, Grains, Protein – not Dairy, since they don’t really have that here), and identified which local foods fit into which categories. We worked together to complete a basic menu plan to see how you can use foods from each food group in a given day and use variety in your diet (eg. Instead of eating maize 3/day for your grains, you could have cassava at a meal and sorghum at another meal). I was able to do some teaching to provide knowledge about nutrition and hopefully they can continue to apply this knowledge in accordance with their economic capacity.

In thinking about the malnutrition here, some similarities to my own North American culture struck me. Just as the people here expect a degree of malnutrition and see it as “normal”, we do the same thing with our health. We don’t recognize if we are sick when that is our constant state of being and we have never experienced a higher level of health. We live each day with the effects of our high-sugar, high-fat, highly-processed diets thinking we are healthy for the most part. Perhaps we are all feeling sick from these things, but it has become the new normal. I encourage you to improve your diet and lifestyle and see if you can reach a higher level of wellness. Don’t let sickness become your norm.

My African Adventure in Food & Nutrition - Part 1: My Sustainer

It has been a very long time since I last blogged. The past 2 months have been a whirlwind, getting ready for our summer and diving into it. We (James and I) spent 2 weeks in Israel visiting family and now have been in South Sudan for almost 2 weeks.

Over the course of the next 2 months I will focus my blog on what I am learning and experiencing in Africa around the subject of Food & Nutrition. The posts will be less frequent as internet access is a difficult thing to come by!

My Sustainer

Coming here to South Sudan was a difficult decision for me, someone who loves nutrition, because I knew that I wouldn’t have a lot of control or choice over my diet—and that it would be less nutritious than what I eat at home.

Our typical diet here is porridge (made out of maize flour and water) and white bread for breakfast; white rice or maize with beans for lunch; and a repeat for dinner. Sometimes there are cooked leafy greens or some peanut butter added to the beans. To supplement the diet we are fed at the orphanage we occasionally eat some cucumber or plain lettuce from the garden, buy bananas and peanuts at the market and get a mango down off the tree. So basically, I am eating a lot of refined carbs, and limited fruits and vegetables – quite the opposite from my diet at home.

Knowing in advance our diet would be lacking, we packed some vitamins and supplements for us to take each day, but this definitely isn’t a replacement.

I learned a very important lesson this week in a very real way—that God is my Sustainer. In Canada, it is easy to trust myself as sustainer, because I could eat the foods I know are good for me and take the supplements or medications I need. However, here in South Sudan, I don’t have so many options so I cannot rely on myself for sustenance—I need to rely on God.

Although supplements are helpful and I should use what God provides (knowledge, resources) to care for my body, ultimately I must rely on God to sustain my body, to keep it going and keep me healthy. By this, I am not saying that I will remain in great health necessarily, beacause God can use sickness in our lives as well. In Philippians 4:12b – 13, Paul says, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

My prayer is that I can learn this contentment that Paul had and trust in God to give my body strength – and continue trusting him in this way even when I return to Canada.