Amaranth Improves Early Childhood Nutrition
by Rebecca Cutter
June 25, 2020
In Guatemala, 50% of children, five and under suffer from chronic malnutrition. In a recent study that included the Food Consumption and Household Dietary Diversity Scores, The Garden’s Edge was able to prove something that indigenous peoples have known for centuries. A diet that includes Amaranth, can and does improve early childhood nutrition. This ancient grain, once revered by the Maya for its nutritional value, was prohibited by the Spanish during the Conquista and has been slowly resuming its rightful place in the pantheon of superfoods. It can be eaten as a green leafy vegetable, the seed can be popped and used as a cereal or ground into a flour. This beautiful plant is making a comeback and it couldn’t happen soon enough!
Members of the Association Qachuu Aloom have been growing Amaranth for sixteen years now. They sell their surplus Amaranth grain back to Qachuu Aloom to either store as seed in their seed bank or to process. Qachuu Aloom now has a small processing plant, where they make cereal, snack bars called “alegrias”, and nutritious flour. Growing Amaranth provides an income to farmers while improving their health. Qachuu Aloom’s natural foods are sold in health stores all across the country but to make these foods more available to their own communities they began supporting women-run Community Health Stores. There are 12 stores now that sell subsidized healthy foods along with other locally grown plant medicines and other foods.
In the community of Chuategua, Maria Lorena Ruiz Mendoza is an active participant in Qachuu Aloom’s Early Childhood Nutrition Program.
This program provides accompaniment to over 100 mothers and their children, five and under, who suffer from malnutrition. It’s not by chance that Maria’s two children now have excellent nutritional health. Her daughter Lisbeth, improved from chronic malnutrition to normal nutritional health, growing 19cm, in the last two years.
María is a young mother who entered our program in 2016 when her son Yeferson was two years old.
She was very interested in tracking his weight and height. That same year she gave birth to Lisbeth, who also entered into the Child Nutrition Program.
Lisbeth was a very healthy baby, but by 2018, her parameters of growth had declined. While her weight was normal, her height indicated a state of chronic malnutrition.
In the next two years, Maria and her children participated regularly in the program and the Qachuu Aloom nutrition staff made frequent home visits to teach her how to cook with Amaranth and other healthy foods.
Through the Nutrition Program, Maria learned how to incorporate Amaranth and pigeon pea flour into her children’s daily diet and slowly Lisbeth’s measurements improved. She was one of the first Qachuu Aloom associates to open a Community Health Store, where she distributes Amaranth and other healthy food products from her home store. She also offers the use of her home and kitchen for group cooking classes, talks, and nutrition fairs.
Maria is 23 years old now, her son is six and her daughter is four. She plays an important role in her community, promoting healthy foods and the use of medicinal plants. She’s demonstrated an appreciation for the plants that grow around her home and in her home garden and she is extremely grateful to Qachuu Aloom for the Childhood Nutrition Program and their work in her community.