Food taboos in Nigeria and their nutritional effects Research Paper

regimen taboos in Nigeria and their nutritional effects - Research Paper ExampleThis study Food taboos in Nigeria and their nutritional effects focuses on the eating behavioural qualities of people in Nigeria and the problems of malnutrition of due to the lack of awargonness and education. public lecture 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 nuance and beliefs. Each of the group has different taboos closelyly regarding children, pregnant women and mothers and people follow them like a saintly religion. Due to such reasons many parts of Nigeria are either suffering from malnutrition or have mellowed infant mortality rate, 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 gist and eggs in their childrens diet, they believe that adding such eatables would make them thieves. The logic behind such insane thought is that since meat, eggs are expensive food items, and they cannot afford it so if children get used to eating them just to fulfil their desire, they will start stealing because of such myths. Nigeria move into the countries with one of the highest maternal mortality rate and every year millions are spent to improve the wellness sector but despite of this there has not been much change. It has been noticed that either such taboos are primarily related to foods of animal origin. Meat contains approximately 18% protein which is very high plus it is thick 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 t hese important nutrition from the diet results in a handicapped society. It has been observed that some 170 m 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