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How peanut butter can help children of Armenia


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#1 man

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Posted 13 October 2013 - 09:14 PM

There is no peanut butter in Armenia, its rare to find it unless an American tourist brought a jar with him and gave it to an Armenian who after taking a spoonful would thrown the rest away as "oough," meaning not to his taste...but wait a minute, in Africa where malnutrition is rampart, and Armenia coming second after Africa in malnutrition of her children --a malnutrition that is obvious when you the see teeth
of Armenian children in bad shape because of malnutrition; specially in the winter season where many rural Armenians survive on potatoes and cabbage. As in Africa, the peanut butter paste can be a manna from heaven for Armenians, if it taste like "oough" then they have to add to it a bit of honey.

OK who is the first one to put a stand in the Opera or republic square and start selling or giving away a roll of lavash bread filled with peanut butter mixed with honey with a little bit of cheese (panir)perhaps or matzoon? Or will we see the day when Candy-Dandy start selling their famous chocolate filled with peanut butter?

Pediatrician Dr Mark Manary reveals how peanut butter can save millions of lives
13 Oct. 2013
http://www.news.com.au/

MOST of us have it as a breakfast staple every day and don't give it a second thought. But the humble peanut butter has the potential to save millions of lives every year. Sound like a far fetched pipedream?

Then consider the possibility that malnourished children could be saved from death just by eating a food source that was easily accessible and cheap.

Enter Project Peanut Butter, which is aiming to save two million children by 2015. According to pediatrician Dr Mark Manary it isn't just a pipedream but a reality. Dr Manary stumbled across peanut butter as a solution to saving the lives of severely malnourished children while working in a Malawi village in 1999.

It was during his time that he noticed people struggling with inadequate farming methods and nutrition and devised a food substance which was bacteria-resistant, easy to make and source, as well as being full of vitamins and nutrients.

The answer, to him, was obvious. Two years later the American conducted a series of tests with peanut butter to see if it made a difference in reversing the effects of severe malnutrition without children requiring a hospital stay or travelling hundreds of miles for treatment.

He made a ready-made mixture, or ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), and found 95 per cent of children had recovered from malnutrition within six weeks of eating the peanut butter paste.

Dr Manary told news.com.au from west Africa that the evidence was overwhelming that the food has the potential to save millions of lives.

"The ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) can treat severe malnutrition anywhere on the planet," he said.

And he said the success rates speak for themselves.

"This approach is beyond research and innovation," he said. "Our team has treated more than 100,000 severely malnourished children with on average 90 per cent recovery."

His nutrient-rich mixture has even been endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the best way to treat malnutrition.

The high-calorie, fortified peanut butter-like food contains mono-unsaturated fats, which are easy to digest, and are rich in zinc and protein.

It also has the added advantage of not needing to be refrigerated for months and doesn't require cooking.

The so called "super food" provides the specific, high-quality nutrition children need to recover, survive, and even thrive and has been shown to raise the kids' immunity to such a point where they can be saved from diseases and illness including Malaria.

Dr Manary said the peanut butter paste also meant mothers could treat their children in the own home.

Previously, children suffering malnutrition required lengthy hospital stays away from their families for up to a couple of months which only had a 25-40 per cent success rate.

When asked about the potential for peanut allergies and potential anaphylactic shock, Dr Manary insisted it hadn't been an issue in the time he had been working in Africa.

"No allergy is not a concern, this is just a misconception of how allergy develops," he said.

"If Australian children were fed peanuts at an early age they would not be allergic."

Almost three in 100 children have a peanut allergy, according to support charity Allergy and Anaphylaxis, and parents are often advised to avoid them until around two.

Australians wanting to get involved in Project Peanut Butter can either donate via the website, volunteer or go to the organisation's Facebook page for details.






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