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Nutty and nutricious Peanuts
Jan 18, 2003
Every year devout Karnataka farmers offer thanksgiving for their groundnut harvest at Bangalore’s Bull Temple during the kadalekai parshe. The event is marked by a solemn ceremony and later my much gaiety and celebration. And of course lots of groundnuts to eat and savour.
Mahatma Gandhi would have certainly applauded the growing popularity of this nutritious legume. His followers and friends observed that he seldom traveled without a tin or two of groundnuts with him. In 1916, his fondness for peanuts was recorded by an amused Sarojini Naidu when she went to meet him in the UK. Gandhiji was camping in a poor area of Kensington and has ample supplies of the legume. He firmly believed that a handful of groundnuts eaten every day could do wonders for health.
Some 86 years later after that recommendation, the world’s attention has been once again drawn to the value of the peanut prescription – particularly for those suffering from a host of healthy problems including heart disease, blood pressure, breast cancer and diabetes.
The nutritional wealth of the groundnut, whose origin dates back to 350 BC, was well-known to traditional cultures around the world. The groundnut has always been valued for its high protein content. On a weight-to-weight basis, groundnuts contain more protein than meat and about two and half times more protein than eggs.
India is the largest producer of this legume, accounting for 40 per cent of the world’s production. It is has been used to make chikki, chutneys, to liven up rice dishes like puliyogere and add flavor and nutrition to snacks like chivda.
In Africa, groundnuts are used to make stews. In Thailand and China, they are ground to a fine paste and used as creamy sauces. It was in the USA however that there was a large scale farming of groundnuts and the commercialization of it – either as a nut, plain or salted, to snack on or as peanut butter. It is said that during the Civil War soldiers ate peanut porridge. In 1890 a food products company began to process and package ground peanut paste as a nutritious protein substitute for ‘people with poor teeth who couldn’t chew meat’.
From that simple beginning, the paste now is described as the breakfast of champions! Peanut butter is one of America’s favorite foods and is found in about 75 per cent of American homes. I t is considered a staple like bread and milk.
Groundnuts have been a subject of serious research for many years. Several medical studies have been published in leading journals.
The Journal of American Medical Association, November 27, 2002 issue, reports on the value of groundnuts and their role in the management of diabetes.
If the report is something to go by, groundnuts could well be a boon to people suffering from blood sugar problems, particularly here in India, the home of the world’s largest diabetic population in the world.
“Nuts in the part were considered unhealthy food because of their high-fat content,” says Dr Frank Hu. Conventional wisdom had it that high-fat foods increase obesity and Type-2 diabetes. But research in the past decade has shown that nuts generally contain good kinds of fat as well as other nutrients that can help keep cholesterol at healthy levels.”
That’s not all. The Harvard medical team says that the fibre and magnesium in groundnuts can help to maintain insulin and glucose levels. In the study, it was observed that people who ate lots of nuts enjoyed better health than others who did not. This aspect of their diet could well have reduced their risk of developing diabetes, Dr Hu points out.
Regular consumption of nuts can be recommended as a replacement for consumption of refined grain products or red/processed meats. So its time we started treating the humble peanut with a little more respect!
Changing face of Buttana Halli
Oct 03, 2003
They once chased mice in the fields and shot arrows at birds. Now ‘mouse’ and ‘arrow’ no longer hold the same meaning to these children of Bhuttana Halli
“Healthy children are a matter of pride for the mother, the family and the community. They are the hope of tomorrow. The progress of any community is often measured by the health and well being of its children," said Lincoln Gresham, the co-coordinator of a NGO who was taking us around Bhuttana Halli and Hakki Pikki colony.
It was a bright morning and in the wooded hills of Anekal taluk, under a huge tree, a youngster was being taught the vocational craft of hunting. He had a bow and arrow in his hand. The father, clad in a loincloth and a loose cloth turban, was crouching and instructing the bare-bodied boy how to hunt a wild fowl. Elsewhere, little boys and girls were chasing rodents off a field. "These children are not from this region. They speak a strange dialect -- a language not spoken in this State," Lincoln explained.
"Actually, all these children help their parents in their work," he continued. "Sometimes in hunting. Sometimes in managing the field. Some tend to goats that are taken out for grazing".
But why are these children not in school? "There is a balwadi in Bhuttana Halli. Recently a voluntary organisation has set up a school. Some children go there readily, also because of the hot lunch served everyday,” clarified Lincoln.
As we went around the village, we witnessed an interesting socio-economic change.
Bhuttana Halli lies close to the forested regions near Bannerghatta, Anekal district, about 45 kilometres from Bangalore, close to the Electronic City. A chance encounter with this rural community by a group of young people from the city in 1996 and a visionary educationist from the city has been responsible for bringing about these changes in the area.
Thanks to the efforts of educationist Sharma of the Saraswati Vidya Mandir, the village now has a school. A modern structure to house classrooms and a playground are part of this school.
Soon, other changes came by. When members of the Bangalore Metropolitan Round Table No 129, a voluntary organisation of young men, met at a nearby farmhouse for a luncheon meeting in 1996, little did they realize how deeply their involvement would impact life in Bhuttana Halli, and particularly touch the lives of children there.
When the members walked around the small village, they were struck by sights of neglect and squalor that mark many remote areas in post-Independence India. The children were poorly clothed and had surface lesions on their bare bodies. Yet they seemed infused with a cheerful disposition. "In fact, many of the children had sparks in their eyes", recalls Tabler Yogesh Seth.
A few weeks later when the members met in the city, they discussed Bhuttana Halli and its children. They decided to 'strengthen' the primary education in the village.
Tabler Charles Gersham notes, "It represented an opportunity to serve. We drew up a project plan".
With that came arrangements for teachers, books, class furniture, school uniform, and a small library. The children in the area - mostly from a tribal background - were introduced to both Kannada and English.
Today the school has grown to include more than 100 children studying from Classes 1 to 6. Dressed in uniforms, they display a sense of discipline and regimen. They are the same children who would otherwise have led a different routine in the forested area surrounding their homes.
The efforts of the Round Table have changed much of that routine. The children in the area are today being ‘mainstreamed’
The Round table has enlisted the help of a NGO - CDC Foundation to offer health and medical services to the community. The children here are constantly exposed to infections and epidemics due to the poor hygiene and sanitation conditions prevailing in the area. Water-borne diseases frequently affect life in the area and become worse in the monsoon period.
Several steps are being taken to build a healthy community. In addition to treatment and immunization, the Table is providing education/awareness programmes for the mothers of the community. It is not uncommon to find small groups of women listening to talks on nutrition, hygiene/sanitation and other health related topics.
Recently, the Round Table sunk a borewell, greatly helping the drinking water situation. The voluntary organisation plans to introduce adult literacy classes, tailoring and other vocational training programmes.
"We plan to keep a close tab on their health status," said Dr Ayesha, volunteer from the CDC Foundation. "Already you will notice that most of these children are free from scabies and other such problems."
"The children will be shortly getting an opportunity to work on computers," added a smiling Tabler. Mohammed Aleem, Chairman BMRT 129.
As they use PCs and become adept at handling 'mouse' and 'arrow', these children will soon realize that they are tools for navigating the cyber world, quite unlike the mouse they chase in the fields or arrows they use to kill birds.
"They will realize that both these tools are for ensuring a rapid entry into a highly technological world," says Aleem, "A world that beckons the bright to its fold. And the children of Bhuttana Halli are certainly bright "
The CDC Foundation can be contacted at 521 9140 or email:cdc_bangalore @yahoo.com
The Bangalore Metropolitan Round Table No. 129 at 221 9969 or email:rrblr@usa.net
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