Nutrition: What you is what you get

If you are the type that loves meeting people, you are likely to meet or have already met some really weird folks in your life. My new job as the head of administration of a school has really exposed me to a lot of weird people and weird situations. Some of the situations are too weird to even be discussed via a blog. One less weird situation that I feel comfortable enough to share here concerns one of the pupils in the school, a boarder student. For the purpose of anonymity, I call the pupil, Golden.

Golden is a 12 years old boy who is currently in primary 4. One thing that first struck me is his age compared to his body stature. He has such a small body that will surprise anyone when his age is mentioned. Also, for someone of his age, it is a bit abnormal to find him in such a lowly class. Pupils of his age mate are already in junior classes in our secondary school. This made me take a special interest in him.

I researched further and discovered that Golden does not eat the foods that normal people eat. He joined the boarding house about 4 months ago and does not eat what his colleagues eat in the hostel. The normal foods served in the hostel include rice, beans, yam, egg, fish, meat, eba, amala, and other locally popular foods in the Southwestern part of Nigeria. These foods have been combined to make each meal served nutritionally balanced. Instead, Golden confined himself to eating junk such as biscuits, cornflakes, golden morn, gaari, bread, and fruits generally.

-Biscuits, especially the brands he eats, generally contain very little to no proteins.

• Nutritional information per 100g of golden morn: Energy 1563kJ / 373kcal, fat 6.6g, of which 1.3g saturated fatty acids, carbohydrates 65.5g, of which sugars 22.8g, fiber 7.2g, protein 13g.
• The nutritional components of cornflakes that the boy eats also show that they largely contain carbohydrates and low protein content (15%).
• Gaari is locally made from cassava and has been found to contain no protein whatsoever.

Everyone knows that fruits are amazing sources of vitamins and antioxidants, but not proteins. In other words, the diet of Golden largely contains carbohydrates. According to nutritionists, a boy of Golden's age needs about 34 grams of proteins per day for proper growth and development, including cognitive abilities.

Ordinarily, perhaps this should not have been a problem; at least, the parents do not see it as one since he did not just develop the habit when he got to the hostel. I know people whose foods are largely junk and never considered it a big deal. But a closer look at what this boy eats shows that there are very little proteins in all the foods. According to the parents, he developed this habit right from his early days after weaning him off breastmilk.

Perhaps if this boy eats enough quantities of these junk foods, he may be able to get the amount of proteins needed per day for effective growth. Alas, not only does he confine himself to these junks, but also eats low quantities of them per day. Since this habit has been with him since his toddling days, my logical hypothesis is that inadequate protein has been responsible for his stunted growth and impaired cognitive abilities.

Had it been that Golden does not eat meat, fish, and other animal proteins, I would have said he is a natural vegan candidate. But his is more than that. He does not even eat plant proteins!

When it comes to nutrition, what you see is what you get, garbage in, garbage out.

What do you think?