Hello Steemians...
You are welcome to another interesting episode of my health-based research revelations. As you might have already known, what we do here (on this blog page) is no tales by moonlight or fictions. Our publications are great health-based research works around those areas that are generally ignored by the public but which can actually impair normal biochemical processes with grave consequences.
It is the main purpose of this page to bring them to the fore so that people are properly informed in order to adopt safer lifestyles.
Today, we will be discussing the negative implications of consumption of poorly processed important food product known as Garri. This article is very timely because Garri is a widely consumed staple food in West African sub region - Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Benin, etc. There is hardly any country within this sub region where Garri is not consumed in high quantity.
Garri is a staple food made from cassava tubers. It is cheap, readily available and gives great vitality when consumed. There are many ways of preparing Garri such as stirring with boiled water to transform it into 'Eba' and eaten with soup, mixing it with cold water, Groundnut, milk sugar, etc.
Depending on the country and ethnic group, it has many nicknames such as Garri, Garium Sulphate, African cornflakes and what have you! And is consumed by both the rich and poor alike.
The Crux Of The Subject Matter
However, studies have found that poorly processed Garri can pose significant health threat to normal biochemical metabolism in the body.
Cyanogenic Glyosides have been found to be present in cassava roots and tubers, and are actually what protects the plant against herbivores and other soil microorganisms. Cyanide is the active ingredient of this protective chemical. According to American Cancer Society, cyanide is poisonous and so consuming cyanide-laden Garri can be lethal to humans when not properly processed.
When Garri is subjected to proper processing, the concentration of the acidic cyanide is reduced to a level that can be tolerated by the body. However, this is not usually the case due to impatience on the part of people who will rather adopt improper processing methods for pecuniary reasons to meet up with public demands. As a result, cyanide-laden Garri is mostly churned out for public consumption.
Dangers Of Excessive Intake of Garri (Or Consumption of Poorly Processed Garri)
There are a lot of health issues associated with the ongoing subject matter, but for the purpose of this article, we will only consider three. The dangers include:
1.### Poor Eyesight
Dr. Ben Ajayi who is Group Director of Eleto Eye Institute Complex, Ibadan, an Ophthalmologist, says...
... Cyanide is slightly similar in structure to cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12). So it competes with Vitamin B12 replacing it and affecting rapidly growing tissues or tissues that are regularly renewed such as the skin, peripheral nerves and the nerve of the eye - optic nerve. It is the involvement of optic nerve which can lead to blindness. Source
Great Steemians...I like to keep my articles within readable threshold. So we will stop here for today. Tomorrow, we wrap up this all-important subject and make useful recommendations.
Thanking you for taking your time to go through this.
