Food taboos in Nigeria and their nutritional effects - Research Paper Example

? Food Taboos in Nigeria and their Nutritional Effects Ayesha Khalid Research-Academia Food Taboos in Nigeria and their Nutritional Effects Communities around the world tend to develop their unique cultures. Communities, which comprise of groups of people, usually acquire and develop cultural traits based upon the learned behavior by such groups. People usually absorb behavioral qualities from their family members, educational institutions, electronic media and their work cum living environment either subconsciously or deliberately. Talking about Nigeria, it is an under developed country with a huge amount of population, in terms of population it stands at tenth place in the world. It is divided into different ethnic groups each having their own culture and beliefs. Each of the groups have different taboos mostly regarding children, pregnant women and mothers and people follow them like a sacred religion. Due to such reasons many parts of Nigeria are either suffering from malnutrition or have high infant mortality rate, moreover people are uneducated and do not know the significance of adding a particular food in their diets. They do what they have seen their ancestors doing for ages. For example people in most part of Nigeria do not include meat and eggs in their children’s diet, they believe that adding such eatables would make them thieves. The logic behind such insane thought is that since meat and eggs are expensive food items and they cannot afford it so if the children get used to eating them then just to fulfill their desire they will start stealing because of such myths Nigeria falls into the countries with one of the highest maternal mortality rate and every year millions are spent to improve the health sector but despite of this there has not been much change, may be because first the people need to be educated about the torture that they are doing to themselves and what kind of social and economic implications such behavior causes. Due to such reasons children are born either deformed or dead because when such taboos will hit a pregnant woman then definitely she will not be able to give birth to a healthy child nor will she be able to survive. When a woman is pregnant she needs the right quantity of all the food supplements; she need to consume fiber, calcium, proteins and etc and if any one of these essential components is removed from her diet then she is going to suffer, not only an expecting woman but also a normal human being. Surprisngly all such food taboos are connected to children or women (pregnant or just a mother) men are not included in the list! To start with pregnant women our forbidden to eat eggs, because it is believed that if an expecting mother eat eggs then her children might become thief! Egg is an important and basic source of protein and deprivation can cause many issues. It is believed that snails should not be consumed by pregnant women because that would prevent excessive salivation in the baby. Some groups forbid their women to eat mushrooms and porcupines for some unknown reasons. Plus milk which is high on proteins and calcium is avoided by pregnant women because they believe it results in difficult labor and cesarean section. It has been noticed that all such taboos are primarily related to foods of animal origin. Meat contains approximately 18% protein which is very high plus it is rich in phosphorus, moderate in iron content, and is an important source of niacin and riboflavin. Especially fresh meat contains ascorbic acid which prevents scurvy. Eggs which are forbidden to pregnant women contain proteins, vitamin A and thiamine. Cutting short all these important nutrition from the diet results in a handicapped society. It has been observed that some 170 thousand Nigerian women die as a result of following such food related taboos (UNCIEF, 2001). The most common causes of death include hemorrhage, sepsis, anemia and others. Hemorrhage is particularly caused when a mother is anemic; a condition marked by lowered production of red blood cells which have a lessened potential to carry oxygen, this is caused by zero intake of protein and iron, both which are present in the meat. Due to protein deficiencies children might born deformed and majority of them get kwashiorkor. Unfortunately when we talk about such issues they just not only affect a particular community or a specific group of people but they also have social and economic consequences. To treat the patients the government has to set up huge medical camps which are free of cost, but such camps are set from the government’s annual budget where they have to pay the doctors and additional amount, yearly millions of dollars are spent on hiring medical teams from developed countries to look into the problem and issues of pregnant women and children, such a huge amount of budget is spent on health but yet there is no decrease in infant/maternal mortality rate that is because people continue to practice food taboos. If the amount spent on health is utilized somewhere else then Nigeria can develop for example if that same amount of budget is spent on ways to mine more gold then Nigeria could become the most sought after nations because it is rich in gold mines but it does not have the resources to exploit it moreover it is an oil rich nation if it concentrates on such assets then it can be economically strong. Nigeria goes into debt when it takes loan from WHO to maintain the health standards and to cure the diseases. Most importantly a healthy nation is an asset while a nation full of handicapped children are a burden on a country’s economy as there will be lesser work force. According to Chukuezi (2010), it is not just the women but their families and communities which suffer from the consequences of maternal mortality and morbidity. Chukuezi (2010) highlights that women play a central role in safe-guarding a family’s health, nutrition, social well-being and education and are usually the earning members of the family. A woman’s loss due to maternal mortality under such circumstances gravely impacts the life of such families. Chukuezi (2010) also concludes that maternal deaths help increase poverty and ultimately is a cause of increasing socio-economic burden on suffering family. The good news is that this problem if addressed can be taken care of. The first and the foremost thing which can help raise awareness is, educate the masses! Through education and literacy comes the wisdom to judge between right and wrong, logical and illogical. An educated person would never believe in such food taboos. The reason why they follow this wrong culture is that there is a high rate of illiteracy especially in women. They need to know about themselves, they need to know what is good and what is bad for them so that they can serve the generations to come. They need to be educated about the importance of nutrition in their diet but to implement such educational programmes the government need to support as well. The government should be able to make and implement laws regarding literacy because most of the times laws are passed but they are not implemented due to government’s negligence, thus education should be provided free of cost specially in small towns and villages where the poverty rate is very high. But again in order to make this happen first you need to educate the people about the hazards that they are facing and more severe consequences that they might have to face due to the lack of enrollment in basic educational programs. It is very important to do so for the well being of the country because with the ongoing system where people follow illogical myths, it is very hard for this nation to survive. In conclusion, food taboos in Nigeria can be attributed to lack of education in masses. The reasons of lack of awareness about education lie in insufficient governmental focus and funding. Moreover roots of food taboos also connect to socio-cultural behavior of Nigerian society. A well knit family structure ensures the transfer of taboos from generation to generation. Food taboos cause deaths and morbidity mostly in children and women greatly inducing more poverty in the society. Active efforts need to be done on the part of government, NGOs and donor agencies to dispel harmful food taboos for a prosperous and healthy Nigeria. References Bradfield, R. (1974).Nutritional hazards of food taboos and preferences in mid-west Nigeria-The American journal of clinical nutrition, 214-215. Caroline, M. (2010).Socio-economic and cultural factors in maternal mortality in Nigeria. Retrieved from http://www.faqs.org/periodicals/201012/2187713331.html. Chukuezi, C. (2010). “Socio-cultural Factors Associated with Maternal Mortality in Nigeria” – Research Journal of Social Sciences, 1(5): 22-26. Chiwuzie, J and Okolocha C., (2001). "Traditional belief systems and Maternal Mortality in a Semi Urban Community in Southern Nigeria"- African Journal of Reproductive Health, 5 (1), 75-82. Elegbe, I and Babafemi, J., (1980).Diet restriction by pregnant women in Nigeria, 55-59. Read More