Posho, rice on weighing scale
Dec 18, 2006
VICE-PRESIDENT Prof. Gilbert Bukenya’s posho article seems to have generated a lot of interest mainly from school administrators and owners, for obvious reasons but also from public, which is healthy, so that the population is kept informed about issues that concern them.
By James Mututa
VICE-PRESIDENT Prof. Gilbert Bukenya’s posho article seems to have generated a lot of interest mainly from school administrators and owners, for obvious reasons but also from public, which is healthy, so that the population is kept informed about issues that concern them.
While meeting members of Parliament at the Cabinet library on December 7, the Vice-President discouraged eating posho in schools as the only dish, explaining that unless eaten fresh or without husking, the white posho flour lacks the nutrients to develop the brain capacity.
Bukenya explained that during the milling of the maize, the husk (skin) is removed and polished, thereby removing the embryo (the thinner nutritious layer), leaving the preferred white powder (the nylon type) which contains only carbohydrates just good for muscle building.
I find Willis Muga’s argument and analysis in The New Vision of December 13 of comparing one cup of rice and maize interesting
But the issue is not whether these values exist or not, the information is that unlike rice, most of these values in maize are in parts that are blown off during the process of converting maize into flour.
The likes of Muga’s reasoning can only work were maize is milled without husking like I saw in rural Kenya and some remote areas of Eastern Uganda, where families use home-based manual millers (the Rego) producing very rough flour, but with all nutrients.
In fact at one point the Vice-President wondered why these nutrients are given to farm animals and poultry in form of bran while humans eat residues instead.
Muga’s argument that he was in school with children from well-to-do families and were not top of class does not hold. There is no correlation between affluence and good feeding. In fact, these families have a lot lacking when it comes to their feeding habits but we shall look at that separately.
I followed the responses by the headteachers in The New Vision of December 12; School leaders oppose Bukenya on posho ban in which the respondents agreed with those who brought here maize in 1934 that posho is cheap and that maize was the only crop that could stand climatic changes.
Yes, these are the same reasons those who introduced maize here put forward, but Bukenya’s argument is that children, mainly in boarding schools, spend most of the time in school, where they have breakfast of mainly posho porridge and where lunch and supper is posho served with beans.
But remember this is the most crucial time when the brains of these children are developing and need all the nutrients that will facilitate this rapid and stable development that will not only affect the IQ of the individual but the future of the society to which these individuals belong.
Countries are now competing in cyber space and technological advancement and it is important that we do not only compete in building muscles to weight lift but rather that we are able to use our brain resources for economic and technological development.
The record should also be put correct that Bukenya did not actually suggest that posho meal be banned from schools but pointed out the need to identify other foods with nutrients that will supplement posho to enhance the development of brains of the young generation if the country is to improve the intellectual capacity of its future generation.
His argument was that rice can make a good compliment because it contains nutrients like zinc, which is the biggest and most important raw material for brain development and other minerals like magnesium and to a certain degree, potassium.
It is true that rice is relatively dearer than posho, but schools need to balance their dishes with other nutritious foods like rice, greens and vegetables, soya, millet porridge and many other items that can be got locally and are equally cheap.
Bukenya did not say posho is bad. It is also unreasonable for one to imagine that he said only rice has the essential nutrients needed for brain development. He is simply saying, you throw away the nutrients in posho to pigs and cows and that what you eat is only 100% carbohydrates.
The writer works with the Vice-president’s press unit
VICE-PRESIDENT Prof. Gilbert Bukenya’s posho article seems to have generated a lot of interest mainly from school administrators and owners, for obvious reasons but also from public, which is healthy, so that the population is kept informed about issues that concern them.
While meeting members of Parliament at the Cabinet library on December 7, the Vice-President discouraged eating posho in schools as the only dish, explaining that unless eaten fresh or without husking, the white posho flour lacks the nutrients to develop the brain capacity.
Bukenya explained that during the milling of the maize, the husk (skin) is removed and polished, thereby removing the embryo (the thinner nutritious layer), leaving the preferred white powder (the nylon type) which contains only carbohydrates just good for muscle building.
I find Willis Muga’s argument and analysis in The New Vision of December 13 of comparing one cup of rice and maize interesting
But the issue is not whether these values exist or not, the information is that unlike rice, most of these values in maize are in parts that are blown off during the process of converting maize into flour.
The likes of Muga’s reasoning can only work were maize is milled without husking like I saw in rural Kenya and some remote areas of Eastern Uganda, where families use home-based manual millers (the Rego) producing very rough flour, but with all nutrients.
In fact at one point the Vice-President wondered why these nutrients are given to farm animals and poultry in form of bran while humans eat residues instead.
Muga’s argument that he was in school with children from well-to-do families and were not top of class does not hold. There is no correlation between affluence and good feeding. In fact, these families have a lot lacking when it comes to their feeding habits but we shall look at that separately.
I followed the responses by the headteachers in The New Vision of December 12; School leaders oppose Bukenya on posho ban in which the respondents agreed with those who brought here maize in 1934 that posho is cheap and that maize was the only crop that could stand climatic changes.
Yes, these are the same reasons those who introduced maize here put forward, but Bukenya’s argument is that children, mainly in boarding schools, spend most of the time in school, where they have breakfast of mainly posho porridge and where lunch and supper is posho served with beans.
But remember this is the most crucial time when the brains of these children are developing and need all the nutrients that will facilitate this rapid and stable development that will not only affect the IQ of the individual but the future of the society to which these individuals belong.
Countries are now competing in cyber space and technological advancement and it is important that we do not only compete in building muscles to weight lift but rather that we are able to use our brain resources for economic and technological development.
The record should also be put correct that Bukenya did not actually suggest that posho meal be banned from schools but pointed out the need to identify other foods with nutrients that will supplement posho to enhance the development of brains of the young generation if the country is to improve the intellectual capacity of its future generation.
His argument was that rice can make a good compliment because it contains nutrients like zinc, which is the biggest and most important raw material for brain development and other minerals like magnesium and to a certain degree, potassium.
It is true that rice is relatively dearer than posho, but schools need to balance their dishes with other nutritious foods like rice, greens and vegetables, soya, millet porridge and many other items that can be got locally and are equally cheap.
Bukenya did not say posho is bad. It is also unreasonable for one to imagine that he said only rice has the essential nutrients needed for brain development. He is simply saying, you throw away the nutrients in posho to pigs and cows and that what you eat is only 100% carbohydrates.
The writer works with the Vice-president’s press unit