Cassava bread and diabetes

Obtainable evidence doesn't help the faulty belief that cassava bread just isn't wholesome for consumption. Some folks have even linked cassava bread with diabetes. This clarification turns into essential against the backdrop of the purported rejection by the House of Representatives of a bill in search of to mandate bakers to make cassava flour part of the components for making bread. I was wondering why the Home would take such choice, realizing that Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of cassava, added with the truth that the produce, which has the potential to earn thousands of Nigerians significant earnings, is not totally exploited.

Diabetes is a worldwide illness and, at current, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has substantial information on it. It's noteworthy that Nigeria will not be one of the international locations with high prevalence, and never even among the prime ten nations that can document excessive prevalence by 2030, according to a research report performed by Sarah Wild, Gojka Rojlic, et al (2004), which was administered on WHO member countries. India, China, USA, Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil, Bangladesh, Japan, Philippines and Egypt are nations that, by 2030, can have between 7 million and 79 million people diagnosed as having diabetes. Coincidentally, these nations are the main wheat producers within the world.

One other medical indicator which is now being used to dissuade people from embracing cassava bread is the Glycemic Index (GI). The GI measures how much each gram of obtainable carbohydrate raises a person’s glucose level following the consumption of the meals, and it's measured in 100. GI low vary falls within 55 and under, medium within 56 and sixty nine, while 70 and above represents the high GI range.

According to the rumour making the rounds, which though has been dispelled by Akinwunmi Adesina, the minister of Agriculture and Rural improvement, cassava has a very excessive GI, which means cassava bread consumption exposes the buyer to the danger of diabetes. However, from obtainable details, the GI of cassava is moderate, which does not constitute danger to shoppers; and cassava flour has a GI of 59.34, which puts it in the medium GI range. Alternatively, white bread, most white rice, corn flakes, cereals, glucose, maltose and white potato are classified as having very high GI, in line with Wikipedia, whereas yam flour was discovered by a gaggle of researchers from the College of Ibadan to have a GI of 49.81.

Furthermore, it's instructive that cassava bread is a staple meals in Central and South America, where it's popularly often called Pão de Queijo in Brazil, Pan de Yuca in Ecuador, Pan de Bono in Colombia, and Ereba in Belize.

As a country with excessive number of poor individuals, cassava affords the nation a manner out of poverty whether it is optimally utilised. At current, not a lot worth is being added to cassava, which explains why Nigeria does not earn a lot overseas trade from it. Many people heaved a sigh of relief when the Agric minister rolled out his transformation programme to include the manufacturing of cassava flour and subsequent inclusion of identical in bread making.

There isn't any doubt that those who have controlled the flour market in Nigeria may not like the concept a new set of businessmen will problem their authority by introducing a product that may reduce their market share. And with the way the invoice was purportedly rejected, it's clear that some very highly effective people are not looking for the cassava bread mission to see the light of the day. Therefore, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture must be forward of these forces if actually the mission is important to it. That is why Nigerians have to be consistently orientated so as to not kill this brilliant idea.

Nigerians are those that consume cassava, including cassava flour. Due to this fact, they need to be the focus of the orientation programme of the federal government. On this regard, I will suggest a three-part orientation programme. The FG should deal with the availability and demand sides in the form of city hall meetings, starting with those in Lagos, Benue, Kano and Port Harcourt. It should, as a matter of urgency, design a pattern manufacturing plan that can virtually show big disparity between the associated fee per unit of producing cassava and that of producing wheat bread of the same quantity. The availability facet entails the farmers that produce cassava flour, who ought to be educated on the need to embrace the highest hygienic practices; whereas the demand aspect relates to the bakers, their distributors and consumers. By so doing, the bakers will relaxation assured that the cassava mission aims to boost their profitability.

This becomes even more mandatory now that an increase in gasoline price and the new electrical energy tariff regime will influence negatively on the ability of the bakers to make profit. Since not all the costs incurred by companies might be transferred to the final customers, especially as many Nigerians are very poor, there's the need to minimize the cost of input, and cassava flour gives a better means of doing this.

The following factor is to mount rigorous campaigns on the radio and tv, while the final stage is to conduct a discipline analysis with a view to gathering new set of data that may assist authorities maintain the project. Ultimately, passing the cassava bill will only be a thing of formality.