So concluded an examination of menus in six schools of Trashigang and Trashiyangtse
Boarding Schools: White rice, potato steeped in watery soup, dhal (another watery dish made with lentils), ema datse and chickpea-fried rice make up the diet in boarding mess-halls in the east.
Meat, mixed with more potatoes and gravy, makes it to the table once a month.
Such a meal provided in boarding schools, dieticians examining mess-food in the east said, cannot meet the minimum amount of protein, vitamins and other essential minerals required for students in their growing years.
"Following a common menu of potato, rice, dhal, chana-fried rice throughout the year doesn't meet the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) standards of other nutrients," a dietician in Samdrupjongkhar hospital, Hari Prasad Pokhrel, said.
RDA is an average daily dietary intake level that is sufficient to meet the nutrient requirements for a healthy body.
The dietician analysed around six mess menus collected from schools in Trashigang and Trashiyangtse.
Even school authorities and messes in-charge, in particular, said the existing quality of food was bereft of protein, vitamins and other vital minerals.
"What we provide in school is 'contradictory' to what we were told to provide during a nutrition course," a mess in-charge and teacher of a school in Trashigang, said. "We're told to provide more food containing protein, vitamins and other essential minerals, but 75 percent of the curry served in schools is potato." Students of higher and middle secondary schools are given Nu 7.77 a day as stipend.
Of that, it has been computed that students get to eat vegetables worth Nu 3.77, while the remaining Nu 4 is spent on rice.
Potato and rice, Hari Prasad Pokhrel said, could never meet the minimum requirement of vitamins.
"The most common menu of potato and rice followed by schools is not a good source of vitamins," he said.
Meat, fish, pork, eggs and green vegetables, rich sources of vitamins and minerals, he said, were served rarely in boarding schools.
He said frequency of meat, the only source of vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin), was rare in school food.
"B12 is crucial for formation of blood," he said. "And this maybe one of the reasons why anaemia (low levels of blood) is prevalent among boarding school children."
Trashigang general hospital's Dr Dorji Tshering said rice and potato were one of the contributing factors to lifestyle and heart diseases among school children in the long run.
"Eating of potato over many years can sometimes affect brain development and student's ability to learn, because of lack of vital nutrients," he said.
Dieticians also said that dhal, used as main source of protein in boarding schools, failed to supply even its minimum requirement, which was greater in growing children.
"The ideal protein required is a gram for a kilogram of a person's body weight," he said. "If a body weighs 60kg then that mass would require 60g of protein a day."
Reserboo general hospital's Dr Kezang Dorji in Wamrong, Trashigang, said nutrition deficiency and anaemic cases were "rampant" in boarding schools across the country.
He spoke of nutrition deficiency diseases many years ago, even much before the death of two students in Orong middle secondary school in 2011.
In 2009, Trashiyangtse general hospital recorded around 60 cases of nutrition deficiency diseases among school-going children.
Similarly, Riserboo hospital has also been receiving sporadic cases of nutrition deficiency and anaemia.
On a monthly basis, the hospital recorded between five and six cases of peripheral neuropathy from three schools in Wamrong dungkhag, including Wamrong lower secondary and Tashitse higher secondary schools.
Health officials said peripheral nerves normally carried information to and from the brain, including signals to and from the spinal cord to the rest of the body.
"Peripheral neuropathy means these nerves don't work properly," Dr Kezang Dorji said. "Yesterday, I came across five students of Tashitse school suffering from peripheral neuropathy."
The three girl- and two boy-students are undergoing oral medication for peripheral neuropathy.
"Their medication will be reviewed in two weeks," he said. "Trashigang general hospital also medicated a boy-student from a boarding school in Dremtse yesterday."
The boy, Trashigang general hospital Dr Dorji Tshering said, reported of a bilateral swelling on his feet earlier, but it had subsided on his arrival to the hospital.
He also said that, once in a while, a case or two of nutrition deficiency was reported in Ranjung higher secondary school at the start of 2011.
The school messes of boarding schools in the east, most in-charges said, lack fruits, source of antioxidants and poly-phenolic substances.
Antioxidants and poly-phenols, Hari Prasad Pokhrel, said, played a crucial role in checking cholesterol levels, which, on going up, caused cardiovascular diseases, and formed free radicals during metabolism, which could cause cancer.
The school menu, the dietician said, lacked water-soluble vitamins like B-complex and vitamin C.
"It's important to note that fulfilling the nutritional needs of the body is far different from just filling the stomach," Hari Prasad Pokhrel said.
By Tempa Wangdi | Trashigang
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