Coping with protein deficiency

Extreme poverty and high illiteracy were once considered two of the impediments to a better life for the country's underprivileged people, especially those in rural areas. These blights and a few other constraints could somehow be coped with in the last couple of decades. But a number of others have yet to be conquered. Rural people's protein deficiency is one of them. As has been observed in a research study, Bangladesh is losing productivity worth Tk10.72 billion every year due to protein deficiency. The country's people are found to be victims of various diseases due to dearth of protein in their foods. Of late it has been found that infertility is alarmingly on the rise among both males and females. The message has been disseminated at a seminar titled 'Right to Protein', jointly organised by Bangladesh Poultry Industries Central Council and US Soybean Export Council in Sylhet recently.

A keynote paper presented at the seminar noted that without sufficient nutrition in-take death risks of mothers and children increase; and different types of physical and mental complications occur during the growing age of adolescents. It's a universal truth that in building a developed nation, it must get rid of the curse of malnutrition. To make that happen, it is essential to include information about protein and protein-rich foods in school textbooks. But protein deficiency does not happen just because of a lack of proper knowledge among rural population. Affordability of protein-rich foods matters most. Protein deficiency, however, is not only a problem of rural areas, urban poor and low-income families also suffer from it.

Interventions by the government and private sector to increase public awareness about protein are there. But in the rural areas, in particular, there are misconceptions and biased views among sections of people about certain food items. In certain areas of the country there has been considerable improvement in nutritional index over the past few years. But they are said to be lagging far behind in milk production. Milk is considered a complete food because it has a lot of high-quality protein and all nine amino acids. Thanks to the prohibitive price of milk in the urban areas, many middle class families have even dispensed with it, thus depriving their fast-growing teenagers of its benefits.

The abnormal rise in the prices of fish, meat and even egg in recent months has only intensified the problem of protein deficiency. Vegetables, pulses and fruits have also become dearer putting extra pressure on low-income people to opt for cheaper and reduced quantity of foods.  Even before the latest economic crisis, a sizeable proportion of children were found to experience stunted growth and, in extreme cases, waste. The loss of productivity worth Tk 10.72 billion due to protein deficiency of people every year is a serious matter. This does not go well with a lower middle-income nation. Bangladesh must plan for improved diet and better health for all segments of society.