MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES L , II I I: 3 II : I g; x“-~~--~ ~—~— -—-—~--—--m\ tHESh’ ii MW HIHI H i .N ,_ :. i 3 1293 00071 0610 g 1 . ‘3 '0 37 ‘ 3 ’ : girl *6 This is to certify that the dissertation entitled Non-locally Produced Foods in the Diet of Pacobamba, Peru Residents presented by Grace Suzanne Marquis has been accepted towards fulfillment ofthe requirements for M. S. ckgnwin Human Nutrltlon C7614,» mar Major professor Kathryn Kolasa MSUI‘: an Afl'i‘rmam-e Avtmn. ‘Equal Opportunity IRJIHIJHUH 0-12771 ~._-‘~ '“r-w MSU RETURNING MATERIALS: PIace in book drop to LJBRARJES remove this checkout from ”— your record. FINES wit] be charged if book is returned after the date stamped beIow. R?Q ” “ * ‘ jw W NON-LOCALLY PRODUCED FOODS IN THE DIET 0F PACOBAMBA, PERU RESIDENTS By Grace Suzanne Marquis A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition 1984 ABSTRACT NON-LOCA 'Ul— >l‘" n-< O W'O )2! Grace Suzanne Marquis Three non-locally produced foods, noodles, bottled oil, and iodized salt, were studied to determine their usage and potential effect on the diet of Pacobamba, Peru residents. Thirty families with three participants per family were interviewed. Data on socioeconomic levels and food buying practices, twenty-four hour dietary recalls, and height, weight, and skinfold measurements were collected. The number of kilos of noodles purchased per week had a moderate negative correlation (r=-.52; ps.Ol) and the quantity of oil purchased showed no relationship with the met percentage of FAO recommended calorie intake for the child. Quantities of iodized salt reported in the adult dietary recalls supplied the WHO recommended intake level for iodine. The girls' anthropometric measurements were significantly higher than the boys' in weight-for-age (x2=5.5; ps.05), weight-for-height (x2=5.7; p$.05), and triceps skinfold (x2=7.5; p5.01). The results suggested that the replacement of local foods with non-locally produced foods could be detrimental to the diet if higher nutrient dense products were displaced, and beneficial if needed calories and nutrients were added. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author expresses her appreciation to the following people: To Dr. Kathryn Kolasa, who gave encouragement and support for this project, since its inception during my first term at MSU. Her excellence as an educator and a research advisor contributed to the growth that I experienced while working with her. To Jean McFadden, for her support and superb orchestra- tion of the final months of my program. To Ann Millard, who provided new insight into nutrition issues and challenged each idea with a different perspective. Thank you for the time and effort spent and the friendship extended. To Kim Wilson, who offered hours of his time to help balance the project with the wisdom of his own experiences. To John Kallas, who was always present in "heaven"; willing to share ideas, materials, and time to work through problems. To Renee Hart and Alexis Alexander, for their friendship and company during the late nights and early mornings in the office. ii To Linda Hansen whose experience smoothed on a daily basis the graduate program. To Dr. Kenneth Brown, for his excellent suggestions that helped appropriately focus this research. To Dr. Botto Rada and the CINCA staff, for sharing their resources and experiences with me. To the Inter-American Foundation, the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, and Sigma Xi for financial isupport, without which this project would not have been possible. The views within however, are totally those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any of the mentioned institutions. To Peg Graham, who held on tightly when times were difficult. To my family, for their love, support, and encouragement felt ever so strongly, even in Peru. To Irma and Tulio, for opening their home and lives to me during my stay in Pacobamba. To all the families that participated in the research study, for showing patience and a willingness to aid in the. project. And, to my husband Manuel, for his encouragement of my pursuits, his assurance of my achievements, and his companionship when life was less than comfortable. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES. LIST OF FIGURES . INTRODUCTION. REVIEW OF LITERATURE. Food Balance Sheets . . . Mortality and Morbidity . . Nutritional Status Studies. . . Dietary Surveys in the Peruvian Andes . . Non- local Foods Used in Diet Around the World. Breast Milk Volume Studies. . . . . . . . Weaning Age Child . Dietary Limitations . . Twenty- -four Hour Dietary Recalls. Anthropometric Measurements Summary . . METHODS . THE Preliminary Research. . Permission to Conduct Research in the Province of Andahuaylas . . Participant Observation . Sample. . . . Non- locally Produced Foods. Sampling. . . . Use of Translator . . Data Collection Tools . . . Human Subjects Consent Form . Pretesting. . . Data Collection . . Payment to the Participants Analysis. . RESEARCH SITE . Historical Note . Present Day Status: Population. . iv Page vi viii N-a—a Noootoosm-h b Housing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Community Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Spiritual Illnesses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Climate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Agriculture. . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Festivals and Special Days . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Diet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Restrictions on Diet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Family Interviews. . . . . . . . . . 79 Socioeconomic Status of Families . . . . . . . . 79 Available Food Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Food Store Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Food Buying Habits of Families . . . . . 103 Factors Related to the Use of Non- locally Produced Foods . . . 11 Twenty- -f0ur Hour Dietary Recalls . . . . . 11 Anthropometric Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 SUMMARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 APPENDICES.....................142 Appendix A. Letter of Permission to Conduct Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Appendix B. Data Collection Tools 81. Socioeconomic and Food Buying Interview Schedule (English and Spanish). . . . . I43 82. Anthropometric Data Sheet . . 157 B3. Twenty- four Hour Dietary Recall Sheets. 158 B4. Survey of Available Foods Found in Local Stores/Markets. . . . . . . . . 159 Appendix C. Common Peruvian Foods . . . . . . . 162 REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Table 15. 16. 17. LIST OF TABLES Community services in rural and urban Peru. Crops that can be cultivated at specified Andean altitudes. . Percent of total bulk of selected foods in the Nufioa diet, 1962 and 1967 . . . . . . Nutrient intakes in Nufioa, Peru . Breast milk production figures. Reasons for incomplete interviews Housing characteristics Family composition. Educational leve1 of participants Travel by participants. Means to obtain cash. Agriculture and livestock production. Foods available in local stores Nutrient content in 100 grams of selected foods used in soup. . Nutrient content of selected foods based on reported quantities used in soup. Percentage of nutrients of selected foods, based on nutrient content of noodles. Foods purchased or obtained through trade by Pacobamba residents . . . vi Page 11 16 16 21 79 80 81 85 87 88 9O 93 98 100 101 104 Table Page 18. Characteristics on the use of three non- locally produced foods. . . . . . . . . . . . . ‘09 l9. Correlation coefficients for factors related to use of non-locally produced foods . . . . . . . 114 20. Mean percent and standard deviation of the FAO recommended intake of calories and nutrients. . 115 21. Pearson's correlation coefficients for the relationship of FAO recommended caloric intake for child and non-locally produced foods. . . . 118 22. Height, weight, and skinfold measurements . . . 128 23. Pearson's correlation coefficient for the relationship between anthropometric measure- ments to non-locally produced foods . . . . . . I31 vii Figure 0'1th OOWNO‘I LIST OF FIGURES Recorded topics from participant observation. Map of Pacobamba. Department of Apurimac. Topographic outline of Pacobamba. Age and sex distribution of population in the district of Pacobamba, 1972 . . . . Height-for-age for girls. Height-for-age for boys Neight-for-age for girls. Neight-for-age for boys Height-for-height for girls Neight-for-height for boys. viii Page 35 39 51 54 55 121 122 123 124 125 126 INTRODUCTION The nutritional status of individuals in the agrarian rural community has been described by many factors, including the diet, the health and the economic status of the residents (Buck et al., 1968; Escudero, 1978; Joint FAO/UNICEF/FAO Expert Committee, 1976; and Solimano and Chapin, 1981). The quantity and quality of the diet is limited partly by the availability of food, government agricultural policies, access to a market, family incomes, personal preferences, and cultural expectations. The available sanitation, the nutritional status of the individuals, and the availability of medical services all influence the health of the rural population. Lastly, the economic status of Andean residents is restricted by the family's land and animal holdings, access to a market- place, the health and educational level of the family members, social stratification, and governmental social policies (Joint FAO/UNICEF/NHO Expert Committee, 1976; and Solimano and Chapin, 1981). A multidisciplinary approach to research is necessary to understand the nutritional status of individuals in an Andean rural community. The expansion of roads and other communication linkages in the Andes in recent years has decreased the isolation of individual communities and has linked them to the national government and market. Regions which were mainly self-sufficient now buy and sell agricultural products through the markets and commercial middlemen. The communities' involvement in the national and regional markets has changed the resources that are available to the rural residents. Prior to the use of a cash economy, foodstuffs were limited to those that could be grown, or obtained through the system of trueque, the exchanges of products within the community or among neighboring communities (Bourque and Warren, 1981; and Mayer, 1974). Currently, use of the national monetary currency for exchange has partially replaced the system of trade in the rural areas. The existence of cash obtained through income generating activities has allowed the Andean residents to have a greater access to non- locally produced (NLP) foods that are only sold. Through the two systems of exchange - cash and trueque -, and through local harvests, food is acquired in the Andean communities. It is expected but not been studied that there may be an effect on nutritional status of residents because of these changes. The use and effect of non-locally produced foods incorporated in the rural diet is the focus of this research. Understanding the market's impact on the nutritional adequacy of the rural community's diet can be an aid to the understanding of food behavior and the formulation of nutrition programs for a region. If an improved, varied diet results, then encouragement of the existing market practices and income earning strategies may be an appropriate means to improve nutritional status of residents. If dietary deficiencies result because of the replacement of local foods, the need to account for lost calories or nutrients should be considered. In either case, or if no change in the diet is yet seen, surveillance of the situation is a needed step in health maintenance (Joint FAO/UNICEF/WHO Expert Committee, 1976). REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Incidence of malnutrition, as shown through clinical, biological, and anthropometric testing, and dietary adequacy have been researched for various regions of the Peruvian Andes. Poverty levels, limited food supplies, and the infant mortality rates, which have been over twice the mortality rates of the coastal cities, have been enveloped in the health and nutrition studies (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, 1978). The role that non-locally produced foods have in the general and weaning diets has been briefly mentioned by several researchers but only studied in some detail in other countries. Food Balance Sheets The daily individual energy intake of Peruvians was estimated to be 2275 calories in the food balance sheets developed by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Ministerio de Agricultura y Alimentacién, 1975). The researchers did not take into account any inequalities in the distribution of the food among the population. As will be seen in the section on dietary surveys in Peru, the typical rural diets have not been found to be as high in calories as the quoted national average. Mortality and Morbidity Nationally, malnutrition has been identified as the principal cause of 3.5 percent of all recorded deaths in 1972; 62 percent of the reported deaths due to malnutrition were in children under five years of age (Escudero, 1978). The infant mortality rate in 1975-1976 was highest for the Andean regions of Peru, 157.5 per 1000 individuals (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, 1978). The Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (INE) demographic survey documented the following as characteristics of departments with the highest mortality rate: more than 70 percent of the people were agriculturalists; over 50 percent of those people five years of age or older were illiterate; the community _ was rural with less than 500 people; and more than 60 per- cent of the women were monolingual. The infant mortality rate for the southern mountain department of Apurimac, which was the site for this research, for 1972 was 108 per 1000 live births (Ministerio de Salud, 1974). Scarce community health services throughout the Andes might have been a contributing factor to the high infant mortality, twice that of Lima (Escudero, 1978; and Solimano and Chapin, 1981). Table 1 shows the difference between the urban and rural areas of Peru in three basic community services in the 1972 census. Table 1. Community services in rural and urban Peru. Type of Service Urban Rural Physicians per 10,000 inhabitantsa 15.5 1.5 Piped water supply (% served)b 72.0 10.0 Sewage system (% served)b 50.0 less than 1.0 aData from 1973-1975 study, Escudero, 1978. bData from 1969 study, Solimano and Chapin, 1931. Low birth weights and retarded growth seen in high altitude Andean communities, where hypoxia (deficiency of oxygen) is an environmental feature, may have been factors in the high mortality rate (Haas, 1976). A study of four cases, rural and urban high altitude communities, and rural and urban 10w altitude communities, suggested hypoxia had a negative effect on growth (Baker, 1975). Nutritional Status Studies Gursky (1969) suggested that the rural highland diet might not have been adequate for the periods of rapid growth in childhood. The at-risk population included those children in large families, of latter birth order, and those children of weaning age (Jelliffe and Jelliffe, 1972). Research had shown that while national birth weights were comparable to those in developed countries, an inadequate growth rate of Peruvian infants placed them far below the Western standards by the age of three years (Graham,et al., 1980). In two sample groups of 1693 rural and 123 urban children, the decline in growth rate of girls was seen within the first few months of life; for boys it appeared around six months of age. A period of catch-up growth was noted in children starting by the age of three years. By the end of puberty, the weight of the children had reached Western standards but the height had not reached its comparable standard. Graham and co- workers (1980) suggested that early malnutrition and improper diets throughout childhood might have been the causes of the stunting. Several other studies throughout Peru confirmed the need for concern about the health of growing children. A group of 714 Moqueguan pre-schoolers was studied in 1972 to determine the degree of malnutrition in the capital district of this southern department (Lira, 1973). Using Ramos Galvan1 height-weight classifications, 36 percent of the children were classified as malnourished (30 percent were grade I, 5 percent were grade II, and l perCent was grade III). Food feeding attitudes of adults might have 1Ramos Galvan standards used the following cut-off points to identify malnutrition: grade I: 10-25 percent below the ideal; grade II: 25-50 percent below the ideal; and grade III: over 50 percent below the ideal. The , reference population was the Boston data. (Amat y Leon and Curonisy, 1981). been defined for the sexes, since nutritional status varied between male and female children. Equal numbers of female and male children were studied in Moquegua; however, 43 percent of the girls and 29 percent of the boys were affected by malnutrition. Agriculturalists had the highest percentage of malnourished children (51 per- cent of the total agriculturalists' children), even higher than the children that had unemployed parents. A researcher in Trujillo found that 28 percent of 454 children less than five years of age, 64 percent of them from the lower class, showed some sign of malnutrition, according to Gomez2 standards (Ramos, 1974). The mal- nutrition was complicated by the parasites present in 60 percent of the children. The Ministry of Health studied nutrition in the southern region of Peru (in the departments of Apurimac, Cuzco, and Madre de Dios) and reported 2.6 percent of the morbidity to be due to avitaminosis, anemia, or other nutritional diseases (Ministerio de Salud, 1974). In one rural region of Cuzco, 71 percent of the 164 children under 6 years of age were diagnosed malnourished by Ramos Galvan standards (48 percent were grade I, 19 percent were grade II, and 4 percent were grade III). That region was compared to 2Gomez standards used the following cut-off points: grade I: 11-25 percent loss of ideal weight; grade II: 26-40 percent of ideal weight; and grade III; a loss greater than 40 percent of ideal weight. The reference population was the Boston data. (Griffiths, 1981; and Ramos, 1974). an urban population of 547 children less than six years of age, where the malnutrition rate was 63 percent (42 percent were grade I, 20 percent were grade II, and 1 per- cent was grade III). The nutritional status of preschoolers on an urban neighborhood in Huancayo was measured with the Ramos Galvan standards (Ministerio de Agricultura y Alimentacidn, 1977). Fifty-two percent of the participants were suffer- ing from grade I malnutrition, 12 percent were with grade II, and 2 percent were with grade III malnutrition. Dietary Surveys in the Peruvian Andes Numerous dietary surveys have been conducted by anthropologists and nutritionists in the Peruvian Andes since the 1950's. In two of the sites that will be discussed below, Vicos and Nuhoa, the nutritional survey was part of a larger, multidisciplinary research effort. The data collected by the researchers offered a broad picture of the communities and the factors affecting the nutritional status of their residents. None of the surveys to be cited accounted for the use of coca leaves-and alcohol (as aguardiente, a sugar cane alcohol; grain alcohol; or chicha de jora, a fermented beverage made from corn). The alcohol beverages may add to the caloric, protein, vitamin and mineral content of the diet, depending upon the processing procedures and the consistency of the 10 slurry consumed. Coca leaves and the alkali ZZipta with which it was chewed to quell hunger and give endurance, had been noted to be a rich source of calcium (Duke et al., 1975; and Baker and Mazess, 1963). 10.95 One of the earliest Peruvian national surveys included Vicos, an Andean hacienda community in northern Peru. In 1951, the hacienda was rented to Cornell University for a research project on the "acculturation of the Indian" (Collazos,et al., 1954). Over a period of five years, social, educational, and agricultural reforms were implemented by Cornell University staff and the Peruvian government personnel to raise the c0mmunity's standard of living (Vazquez, 1965). Between 1952 and 1956, the community was surveyed three times by a team of government investigators. The surveys showed the effect of the reforms on the nutritional status of the residents. The status had improved because of an increased amount of food available, and the improvement of the health and income of the general population. As is typical of rural Andean communities, the diet in Vicos was partially defined by the altitude of planted fields (chacras) that the individual owned or rented. The data collected through the dietary surveys in July 1952, February 1953, and May 1956 showed the typical Vicos diet 11 to include barley, corn, wheat, broad beans, oca, cabbage, potatoes, onions, herbs, sugar, and lard (Collazos,et al., 1954; and May and McLellan, 1974). The Vicos lands ranged from 2700 to 6000 meters (Collazos,et al., 1954). The steep incline of the mountainside required terraced agriculture; the altitdde of each parcel allowed only specific crops to be grown. Table 2 lists the crops which are possible to cultivate at the different altitudes in the Andes. The meters are approximations which differ some- what throughout the country. Table 2. Crops that can be cultivated at specified Andean altitudes. Altitude (meters) Plants cultivated 800-1500 sugar cane, coffee and cash crops 1500-1900 wheat and maize in non-drought years 1900-2450 wheat and maize 2450-3100 lower: wheat, maize and barley upper: potato and pea 3100-3500 potato, oca, and other tubers 3500-4450 pasture, caflihua and quinua (both indigenous grains) and potatoes From: Brush, 1977; and Thomas, 1976. 12 The 1952 and 1953 Vicos Surveys The adequacy of the diet noted in the 1952 and 1953 dietary surveys was first evaluated by Collazos and co- workers (1954) in terms of calories, protein, vitamins and minerals using INCAP recommended allowances. In these first two studies, deficiencies were seen in calories, calcium, vitamin A and riboflavin. The findings of the surveys were supported by medical examinations showing clinical signs of modifications of the tongue and lips, xerosis of the skin, unusual eye pigmentation, poor muscular development and abnormal subcutaneous fat tissue (Alers, 1965; Collazos,et al., 1954; and Collazos,et al., 1960). The 1956 Vicos Study An improvement was seen in the diet after the intro- duction of new technology, such as seeds and fertilizers (Alers, 1965). The new agricultural inputs increased the quantity of the foods available for local consumption. The production and sale of surplus potatoes provided cash for the peasants. The diet in 1956, as compared with the diet in the previous two surveys of 1952 and 1953, was higher in the use of purchased meat and packaged food (types not detailed in the report), and in locally produced crops. The per capita consumption of calories, vitamins A and C, and niacin were found to have increased since 1953. 13 The improvement was not attributed to purchased items but to the increase in the consumption of locally grown foods (Alers, 1965). Paucarolla The average diet in Paucarolla, a farming community located in southern Peru at approximately 3800 meters, was a mixture of locally and non-locally produced foods (May and McLellan, 1974). In a 1955 survey, Paucarolla residents' basic diet included mutton, fresh potatoes, chuho (freeze-dried potatoes), rice, bread, barley, quinua, and white sugar. The small artisan industry and the surplus crops and animals provided the currency to purchase or exchange for the white sugar, bread and rice. In the evaluation of the diet, the calories, calcium, vitamin A and riboflavin were low in comparison to the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations (World Health Organization, 1974). Miss Two nutritional surveys in 1962 and 1967 were conducted during a long-term multidisciplinary study of high altitude adaptation in Nuhoa (Mazess and Baker, 1964; and Gursky, 1969). The research site was located in the highlands zone of southern Peru and included the town of Nuhoa and the surrounding villages and haciendas. The comparison of data from the studies showed that different factors 14 affected the Nuhoa diet in each year's study. The 1962 Survey of Nunoa In 1962, all foods that were to be consumed by the participants of the study were weighed for one day (Mazess and Baker, 1964). In addition, a 24-hour dietary recall was taken. The foods included: chufio, potatoes, other tubers, wheat, barley, maize, quinua, cafiihua, meat, lard, onions, sugar, peppers, and milk. The last four items were consumed only in small quantities. Using the Interdepartmental Committee on Nutrition for National Defense standards for dietary intake, the fresh potatoes provided approximately 75 percent of the recommended vitamin C and 30 percent of the recommended vitamin B complex (Mazess and Baker, 1964; and Mitchell, 1979). Chufio provided about 50 percent of the total calcium intake and 25 percent of both the total thiamin and riboflavin intake. Only the chufio, potatoes, barley, quinua, cafiihua, and meat products would have been locally produced. Other foods were purchased or part of a trade. In 1962, the non- locally produced foods comprised only 2.5 percent of the total bulk of foods consumed (Pic6n-Reategui, 1976). The diet appeared to be defined principally by the domestic animals and the crops that could be grown at the given season and high altitude. The national and regional food markets had little interaction with the community. 15 The 1967 Nunoa Survey By 1967, the situation had changed in Nunoa. A poor harvest of potatoes decreased the availability of the tubers, both fresh and freeze-dried. By July, only one month past the end of the harvesting season, only 9 percent of the diet was made up of potatoes and chuao; in contrast to 78 percent of the diet in 1962. The lack of potatoes required the Nunoa residents to incorporate into their diet other local products and non-locally grown foods. The diet in the 1967 four-day food weighing survey was principally made up of wheat, maize, meat, quinua, barley, and some chuno. The differences in consumption of products in 1962 and 1967 can be noted in Table 3. The use of meat, wheat, quinua and corn increased consid- erably in 1967. The analysis of the 1967 Nunoa diet suggested that it was inferior to the 1962 diet in calories, protein, vitamin C, niacin, riboflavin, calcium and iron (see Table 4). However, several points should be remembered: 1) different researchers collected the two sets of data; and 2) different methods of data collections were used. The ability to have ready cash or exchangable items, such as animals, became important in Nunoa, as reliance on the regional and national markets for food increased. Access to the markets and products also influenced the availability of food. In 1967, it was reported that trucks 16 Table 3. Percent of total bulk of selected foods in the Nunoa diet, 1962 and 1967. Food Baker and Mazess Study Gursky Study Nunoa (1962) % Nunoa (1967) % ANIMAL: cebo (fat) 0 3 0.7 meat 6 0 12.3 cheese -- 2.5 GRAINS AND VEGETABLES: cafiihua 2.9 2.2 wheat O 9 21.6 barley 3.4 7.4 rice -- 0.7 quinua 3.0 11.9 maize 1.6 22.0 potatoes 47.9 1.9 chuno 30.4 7.4 From: Picon-Reategui, 1976. Table 4. Nutrient intakes in Nunoa, Peru. 1962 1967 Calories 3110 1784 Protein (gm) 69.0 53.4 Thiamin (m ) 1.8 1.8 Niacin (mg) 41.0 18.0 Riboflavin (m ) 2.1 1.0 Vitamin C mg) 114.0 8.0 Vitamin A IU) 102 5542:5962 Calcium (mg) 441 334 Iron (mg) 22.0 18.0 From: Gursky, 1969; and Mazess and Baker, 1964. 17 from Puno entered regularly to supply residents with liquor, molasses, peppers, maize and fish; Nunoa stores stocked products such as flour, maize, sugar and rice (Gursky, 1969). The purchasing power of the residents limited the amount of products that could be bought. The purchased foods were primarily wheat and maize in the 1967 diet. A lack of sufficient cash probably prohibited the purchase of the quantity of products needed to meet daily dietary requirements. Lime Graham and coworkers (1981) compared varied food expenditures on nutrient sources. As has been seen else- where, milk, meats, and fats were consumed more by the higher spending group. In addition, bread was found to be a substitute for noodles when increased money was available. The percentage of the diet that was made up of rice and legumes was constant no matter what the food expenditures were. Southern Peru Figueroa (1981) studied food usage in eight communi- ties in southern Peru (in the departments of Huancavelica, Apurimac, Cuzco, and Puno). He found 50 percent of the food consumed to be home grown. Purchases of food included: noodles, rice, canned products, edible oils, beers, and soft drinks. Trading without cash accounted 18 for only five or less percent of the total production of foodstuffs for the community. Contrary to what other researchers had found, Figueroa thought that there was a trend toward an increased use of local products and a decreased use of the non-locally produced foods. He sighted the example of the increased use of lard instead of vegetable oils. Previous research and the present research do not contribute to this concept of a move away from the market system. On the contrary, all indications point to an increased use of the marketed products. Non-local Foods Used in Diets Around the World In each of the Peruvian dietary surveys that were cited, the diet was a mixture of locally and non-locally produced foods. The nutritional adequacy of the diet was affected by the quantity and the nutrient quality of the foods. Studies on the use of non-locally produced foods have been conducted elsewhere, such as in Finland and American Samoa. Finland Study In Finland, it was found that as an isolated community became more immersed in a cash economy, the variety of commercially marketed foods increased (Pelto,et al., 1981). As the new products were accepted there was a corresponding loss of the use of locally produced foods. 19 American Samoa Study Dietary changes similar to those found in Finland were noted in research conducted on the American Samoan islands (Bindon, 1982). The traditional foods such as breadfruit, banana, yam and shellfish were lost with the development of the islands. When diets were compared between different island sectors varying in the degree of modernization, definite changes were noted. In the most modern sectors, the traditional foods had been replaced by marketed foods such as canned corned beef, canned fish, fresh beef, rice and bread. The more isolated communities maintained the use of the traditional foods. Breast Milk Volume Studies Researchers studied the nutrient intake of young children have investigated the production and consumption of breast milk. Quantifying breast milk is necessary before a breast fed infant's diet can be evaluated for calories and nutrients. Where as other foods can be easily weighed and measured before consumption, the mechanism of delivery of breast milk, breast directly to infant, causes difficulty in quantifying the milk. Two methods have been developed to measure the milk produced: 1) "test weighing", where the infant is weighed before and after each feeding and the difference between the weighings is considered the quantity of milk ingested; 20 and 2) expression of milk from both breasts by mechanical or manual means, after which the milk is measured (Picciano, 1981; and Brown, 1982). Both methods have problems. The yields from expressing the milk may be lower than normal because the natural let-down reflex was interrupted. The "test weighing" method is less disrup- tive to the normal feeding periods. A cycle can begin with the "test weighings" where the child is awaken during the second weighing, must be breast fed again, and therefore reweighed. Table 5 shows results from various studies on breastmilk volume. Scottish infants in two studies were weighed before and after breast milk feedings. The mean daily milk consumption at day 5 was 400 and 500 m1, and 700 to over 900 ml between 50 and 200 days (McClelland, 1978). Illinois infants showed lower intake levels in their test weighing (Picciano and Deering, 1977). They consumed from a mean of 606 ml at 28 days to 626 m1 at 90 days. Swedish infants consumed a mean of 538 m1 at per day at 14 days and 756 ml per day between 3.5 and 6.5 months of age (Lonnerdal,et al., 1976). "Test weighing" was used in the Gambia to estimate breast milk intakes (Rowland and Paul, 1981). Seasonal changes were noted in the breast milk quantities, which dropped during the rains. The mean 24 hour production of milk (in grams) for infants from 3 to 18 months of age is 21 Table 5. Breast milk production figures. ' Age Groups C°UntrY 1 to 6 6 to 12 12 to 24 24+ months months months months ml ml m1 m1 USAa 606-626 Swedenb 538-756 Scotlandc 500-900 d 400-700 Gambia 730-790 670-730 610 Mexico (1961)e 590 510 380-510 380 Mexico (1971)9 450-650 400-500 350 From: Picciano and Deering, 1977a; Lonnerda1,et al., 1976b; McClelland,et a1., 1978C; Rowland and Paul, 19819; and Chavez,et al., 19759. listed in Table 5. Research completed by Martinez and coworkers (1971 and n.d.) in Mexico and Chavez and coworkers (1975) found breast milk volumes to vary according to the age of the child. A sharp increase in volume was noted during the first 8 weeks after birth, from 450 to 600 ml. That volume declined over the next two months to about 500 ml and stayed at that level for 8 months. During the second year of lactation, milk consumption levels dropped to a mean of 350 m1. Jelliffe and Jelliffe (1978) gathered breast milk volume studies and developed age groupings that would be used for mean calculations of milk production. The age groups were: 1 to 6 months; 6 to 12 months; 12 to 24 months; and 24 months and over. The means for the groups 22 were based on studies completed in 13 underdeveloped countries. Recommendations to estimate the milk intake of the infant varied. The World Health Organization suggested using 850 ml per day as a mean for all periods of lacta- tion (World Health Organization, 1965). Jelliffe and Jelliffe (1978) recommended a lower value for estimating breast milk volumes at varying ages: 500 to 700 ml per day for l to 6 months old; 400 to 600 ml per day for 6 to 12 months old; 300 to 500 ml per day for 12 to 24 months old; and 230 to 488 ml per day for 24 months old or over. WeaningAge Child Breast milk serves adequately as the sole food for normal infants with healthy mothers, up to a maximum of six months of age (Food and Agriculture Organization, 1974; and Michigan Department of Public Health, 1981). In cases where the mother or infant is not in normal health, a decrease in the growth rate before six months of age may be seen if only breast milk is consumed. Once breast milk is no longer sufficient to maintain proper growth rates, the infant must receive weaning foods that supply the necessary caloric and nutrient levels for growth. Difficulty arises in underdeveloped areas where the food might not be calorically dense (such as a thin gruel) or might be contaminated and lead to 23 infectious diseases. Illness is detrimental to the growth rate of the infant as it can cause anorexia, vomiting, and diarrhea, all of which can lead to loss in weight. In The Gambia each year, the rainy season was accompanied by a food shortage, increased agricultural work, and an increase in infectious disease (Rowland and Paul, 1981). All three factors caused a decrease in energy intake and an increased energy output in women, and a corresponding loss in weight and breast milk output. The response of the mothers to the deleterious situation that could interrupt the normal growth pattern of the infant, was to introduce weaning foods early, between three and five months of age. The stress of inadequate calories was relieved by the weaning foods, however the increased risk of infection through contaminated food, was then a prominent concern for health workers. Enrichment of weaning foods to improve child nutri- tional status has been the focus of nutrition education projects in several countries. A mass media project in the Phillippines utilizing radio messages as the primary source of nutrition information, attempted to change mothers' preparation of a weaning food so as to include fish, green vegetables and cooking oil (Manoff Inter- national, Inc., 1977). Enrichment of the weaning food with fish and green vegetables was significantly increased in the families exposed to nutrition messages. The 24 Indonesian Nutrition Improvement Program set similar weaning food goals as the Philippine project: enrichment of porridge, with green vegetables, rice, tahu or tempe, and coconut milk (Manoff International, Inc., n.d.). The primary source of nutrition information was volunteer community nutrition workers, with radio as the secondary source. Preliminary results showed a significant dif- ference between control and experimental groups for nutrition knowledge, use of green vegetables and coconut milk in porridge, and growth rates as shown on weight- for-age charts. Dietary Limitations Caydn (1971) researched the food beliefs of Quechua speakers in two communities in the Andahuaylas province. He found that residents placed various restrictions on the weaning age child's diet, including: no eggs(to avoid an individual's later having children that looked like chickens); no large potatoes or fresh corn-on-the-cob (that were believed to cause the child when older to fall off a cliff); and no chicken heads (that might cause the child to move his or her head like a chicken). Eating chicken necks was believed to cause a child to sing well. A pregnant woman was allowed any food that she desired; a denial of a food was believed to cause the fetus's death. After giving birth, the mother recuperated 25 with a diet high in meat. Twenty-four Hour Dietary Recalls Rasanen (1979) tested the use of twenty-four hour dietary recalls on Finnish rural children. He found that repeated recalls showed high reproducibility for group consumption. That is, the individual variability between repeated recalls might have been large, but the child's place among the participant group remained unchanged. The reproducibility made the twenty-four hour dietary recall preferable to the food history for dietary docu- mentation. Beaton and coworkers (1979) looked at sources of variance in the twenty-four hour dietary recall data. Using past participants of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute study, they found a significant effect of the day of the week on the absolute nutrient intakes of women. Working United States women ate more food on Sunday than on other days of the week. Such an effect was not seen with men. It was suggested that the total amount of food ingested (energy intake) rather than the particular combination of food (nutrient concentration per 1000 calories) was the main variance. Nutrient concentrations but not absolute intakes therefore could be pooled across sex and the day of the week without major concern about potential bias. 26 Gersovitz and coworkers (1978) reported one problem of the twenty-four hour dietary recalls to be the “flat slope syndrome". He suggested that although the mean was accurately recalled, fewer subjects would have very low intakes or high intakes. The flattening effect made it harder to note the effect of a nutrition program because it failed to detect actual differences in participants. Grouping dietary data for the entire sample as a whole might have lessened some of the problems of poor memories, atypical diets and the above mentioned problems. Data Base Nutrient content of foods had been analyzed in 100 gram edible portions and common portion sizes. The United States Department of Agriculture (1975) and Pennington and Church (1980) both developed food composition tables for American foods, using common portion sizes to report the nutrient composition. The Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Salud, 1975) in Peru developed food compo- sition tables for Peruvian foods, using portion sizes of 100 grams. FAO Recommended Intakes of Nutrients The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in joint effort with the WHO developed a handbook on recommended intakes of nutrients, based on human nutritional require- ments (Food and Agriculture Organization, 1974). The 27 recommendations were meant to serve as guidelines for government planners, institutions involved in food preparation, and as comparison figures for nutrition surveys. The recommendations were written as the minimum requirements for the specified age group. A comparison of actual reported intake to FAO recommended intake could not be used to indicate malnutrition, without further clinical and biochemical evidence. Anthropometric Measurements Anthropometric measurements have been used to estimate individuals' nutritional status (Jelliffe, 1966). Length- or height-for-age is used as an indicator of past nutri- tional problems (Griffith, 1981). Low values in this category could signify stunting from long-term malnu- trition. Weight-for-age is sensitive to small changes in nutrition status and reflected chronic and acute malnu- trition. The sensitivity of the weight-for-age measure- ment made it useful for monitoring nutrition programs. Weight-for-height indicator is used to identify children that might be short for their age but are well pr0portioned for their height. Triceps skinfolds are a method to measure skinfold thickness as an indicator of subcutaneous fat (energy) stores (Jelliffe, 1966). 28 Reference Population WHO recommended the use of United States National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) growth charts for reference values for height and weight (World Health Organization, 1978, and Waterlow et a1., 1977). The NCHS values were chosen for the following reasons: 1) the data were recent; 2) the sample size was large and varied according to ethnic background, socioeconomic strata, and place of residence; 3) a trained staff collected the data; 4) the data were cross-sectional; and 5) the data were available for analysis. Triceps skinfolds were analyzed in the 10-State Nutrition Survey for black and white Americans. The 10-State Nutrition Survey was a survey of those states thought to have large pockets of poverty and hunger. Although it was not representative of the entire United States, it did offer a large reference population, to be used until the NCHS recently collected triceps skinfold data are available. Summary Researchers have suggested that the p0pulation segments at greatest nutritional risk are weaning age children and others in periods of rapid physical growth. The Vicos and Paucarolla studies showed deficiencies in diets of residents in calories, vitamin A, riboflavin, and calcium. The Nunoa researchers found deficiencies in vitamin A, 29 calories, riboflavin and vitamin C. Malnutrition has been documented in the nutritional status surveys as ranging from 28 to 71 percent of the young children sampled. With increased market participation, 6 growing portion of the diet of each of these villages and other communities around the world was made up of non-locally produced foods. These products had the possibility of supplementing or replacing the foods that were tradi- tionally grown and eaten. In the case of Vicos, the new foods appeared to add little to the diet. In the case of Nunoa and American Samoa, the traditional, local foods were replaced by purchased foods. Concern about replac- ing the local foods arose because of the limited purchasing power of rural people. The cash available to the rural residents might not have been sufficient to buy the quantity of foods imported from outside the region which were necessary to meet the residents' daily dietary needs. The changes which occurred in the food habits of rural communities can be watched throughout the process of development. In the Andes of Peru, isolated villages are slowly coming into contact with the national and regional markets. This contact may induce positive, negative, or no effects on the rural diet. A supplemen- tation of the diet would be positive for the groups that have been identified as high nutritional risks. However, 30 these same groups may become more at risk should a highly nutritious food be replaced by one that is purchased but is nutritionally inferior. No researchers have studied the use of non—locally produced foods in the Peruvian diet. Therefore, this study was designed to examine the use of the locally and non-locally produced foods in the rural community of Pacobamba, Peru. Like other research sites previously mentioned, Pacobamba is a farming community in the Andes, whose residents obtain food through private agricultural production, trading without cash, and purchasing with cash. Marketing practices that brought non-locally produced foods into the community were studied along with the reasons why people chose to use these marketed foods. By evaluating the nutritional value of the foods them- selves and their usage, estimates on the impact that these foods might have had on the rural diet can be made. METHODS Three non-locally produced foods were studied to document their prevalence and usage in the Pacobamba residents' diet and estimate their effect on health status of residents. Methods used in the research included: literature review, participant observation, socio- economic and food buying interviews, store inventory interviews, twenty-four hour dietary recalls, and collecting anthropometric measurements. The literature review provided socioeconomic back- ground for the study and defined past nutritional problems in the southern Peruvian Andes. It also helped to define the age groups of the participants. Participant obser- vation helped to define the child age group, the three non-locally produced foods to be used, and characterized the community. A socioeconomic interview schedule was used to define the community of Pacobamba. Food buying questions identified the prevalence of the non-locally produced foods. A store interview was utilized to identify non-locally produced foods available to the community residents, the foods' place of origin, and to help the researcher choose the three non-locally produced 31 32 foods to be studied. The twenty-four hour dietary recalls gave an estimate of the dietary intake, and a frequency of non-locally produced foods in the diet could be elaborated from this data. The anthropometric measure- ments of height, weight, and triceps skinfold were used to estimate the nutritional status of the participants. Both the dietary intake and anthropometric measurements taken were used to see if any effect of the non-locally produced foods could be noted in nutrients or nutritional status of participants using varying levels of these foods. Fieldwork was conducted from August to December 1983, during which the researcher lived in the village of Pacobamba. The interview schedule to collect socio- economic and food buying data was developed in English, translated to Spanish at Michigan State University, and pretested in Peru. A randomly selected sample of families were interviewed on three occasions to obtain data on the family's socioeconomic status and food buying habits, a twenty-four hour dietary intake, and height, weight, and triceps skinfolds. Preliminary Research A literature review was conducted at Michigan State University and the following Institutions in Lima: Centro de Investigacion en Nutricion y Control de Alimentos 33 (CINCA); Instituto de Investigacion Nutricional (IIN); Instituto Nacional de Estadistica; Ministerio de Salud; and Ministerio de Agricultura y Alimentacidn. Publications on previous nutrition research conducted in the Andes were reviewed for information on specific nutritional problems in Peru and culturally important customs related to food and agriculture. Data were collected on agricultural production in the district of Pacobamba through the annual agricultural production reports from the Agriculture and Food Ministry and the 1972 Agricultural CENSUS (Oficina Nacional de Estadistica y Censos, 1975; and Ministerio de Agricultura y Alimentacion, 1974). Socioeconomic descriptions of the district and the town of Pacobamba were found in data from the 1972 population census (as of this writing, the 1982 census for the department of Apurimac was not available) (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, 1978). Researchers at CINCA and IIN were informally inter- viewed to help define the age group of the children to be sampled. Through the discussions, the weaning age group was chosen to be the sample. Health ministry officials in Abancay were also interviewed and nutritional data on the department of Apurimac were requested by the researcher. Although growth monitoring was conducted in many medical outposts around the Apurimac department, no centralization nor 34 compilation of the reports were completed. Permission to Conduct Research in the Province of Andahuaylas As the province of Andahuaylas was under military rule, written permission was obtained from the area security chief of the Armed Forces in order to conduct research in Pacobamba (See Appendix A). Once permission was granted, the researcher met with no interference from the military or civilian police. Participant Observation This researcher's first two months in Pacobamba were spent on participant observation. Informal conversations with residents in their homes and fields, and more structured conversations with store owners and political leaders provided information on three areas: community characteristics, community cash flow, and entrance of non-locally produced foods to Pacobamba (Agar, 1980; and Burgess and Burgess, 1975). Figure l specifies examples of the information gathered on each issue. All observa- tions were recorded in a field notebook, which was updated daily to serve as one resource for the Research Site chapter (Bass and Kolasa, 1974; Bass,et al., 1979; and Pelto and Pelto, 1978). General Topic 35 Specific Information Gathered Community characteristics Cash flow Entrance of non-local foods Geographic attributes (water source, mountains) Community services (political, medical, religious) Residents' community obligations (taxes, work) Economic and communication linkages to other cities Ethnicity and language Social activities (festivals, food preparation customs) Food taboos and beliefs Agricultural practices Sex and age roles in food production, preparation, and consumption Prevalent medical concerns Present cottage industries and cash cropping Animal production and sale Trade Labor practices Marketing practices Time of entrance of non-locally produced foods Origin of foods Seasonality of non-locally produced foods Plans for future importation Figure 1. Recorded topics from participant observation. 36 Before starting the interviews, the specific age group of the child was defined and three non-locally produced foods were chosen in order to focus the food buying questions. Both these issues are discussed in the following two subheadings. Sample A family consisting of at least a child less than 3 years of age who was also eating foods along with breast milk, an adult male, and an adult female, was the sample unit. The determination of the age of the child to be sample was finalized during the participant observation period. Women from the community were asked for the oldest age they had ever heard of a child being breast- fed. This age, thirty-six months, was used as the upper limit for the child selection. The lower limit of the age group was defined as the age at which the child was eating food in addition to milk. In studies conducted in the Andes and presently in Lima, the weaning age child has been identified as at the highest nutritional risk (Brown, 1983; Mazess and Baker, 1964; and Gursky, 1969). Non-locally produced food presently and in the future may play an important role in the weaning diet and therefore in the nutritional status of the young child. In Pacobamba, children generally ate from the family pot. In the interviews, only one family mentioned a food 37 item other than bottles of formula or milk, that was made only for the child to consume. The child's diet there- fore was representative of the food available to other family members. The adult female and male of the family were included in this study since their diet represented the family pot of food. They also contributed additional information on the use of non-locally produced foods. The mother was typically the food purchaser and was exposed to the non-local foods more than other family members. She might on occasion purchase foods for herself and others that might not reach the family pot, as they are consumed at the place of purchase. Similarly, the male might buy items that would not be consumed by everyone in the house, such as alcohol. Each participant's recall there- fore, represented the general diet of the family and the foods that might be specific to that member's age, sex, or role. Non-loca11y Produced Foods During the participant observation period, the non- locally produced foods available in Pacobamba and’ Huancarama were noted by the researcher. Three NLP foods were chosen to be the focus of this study, based on three points: 1) the foods replaced a traditionally used product, 2) the nutritional significance of the food, and 3) the overall prevalence of the use of the food. The foods 38 chosen were: iodized salt, noodles, and vegetable oil. A few questions were also asked about the quantity of sugar, canned fish, and rice used by the family per week. mules Aided by several residents, this researcher drew a map of Pacobamba (See Figure 2). All houses that lay within the town's boundaries were included along with the major irrigation canals, rivers, roads, school, city hall, church, and stores. The houses were numbered so that the map could serve in the sample selection process. Using a random number table, eighty house numbers were arranged for screening and sampling. Sampling from the map was used to insure that all present residents were included in the selection process. Sampling from birth records would have eliminated from the potential sample, recent migrants to Pacobamba and children who were born elsewhere. Each household, correSponding to the house number, was then screened to see if it met the following criteria: 1) child under three years of age and consuming foods other than just breast milk, 2) adult male, and 3) adult female. The screening was completed by: the researcher's knowledge of the family; home visits to establish the age and foods fed the child; and town birth records. All but six birth dates were available and could be confirmed 39 onho «F op NF FF op e m op F seep mmoF . xme NFm uFm Rum M Nae mom ame w va OF 3 U 1... gm 8 w. w. on M D. 1. xnm ow m. u om m. 1? m cm 0 u. 1.. OF H. 3 1. om m. D d D. om m q HWMMW mmeEmF m . 03m 56 females. The decrease in percentage of males in the older age group could be explained by the out-migration of males looking for work from the communities. The change in percentages from "less than one" to "one to three" groups was not easily explained but could be the result of fluctuations due to small population size. This researcher did not note any prevalent care practices of differentiating between male and female children that would explain these percentages. The 1972 Pacobamba district statistics showed that 49 percent of the population was under 15 years of age. The marital status of the over 12 years of age group included 51 percent married couples, 26 percent unmarried, 9 per- cent widow(er)s, and 12 percent convivientes (living together but not married legally). There was one case of divorce. Fifty-six percent of the households were nuclear, 22 percent were extended, and the remaining were either one person or composite households. Ethnic Identification Ethnic identification of the residents included mestizo and Indian. The actual percentages of the p0pu- 1ation were not known, but pure Indian residents are expected to be rare due to the fact that the Spanish presence and intermarriage has occurred for several centuries. 57 Housing Houses were made of mud-and-straw sun-baked bricks. A few of the homes were of cane and mud. Roofs were made of Spanish tiles, straw, eternite (compresed wood chips and plaster), or metal. Spanish tiles were locally produced and imported from Cuzco; the best quality tiles were from Cuzco and were the most expensive form of roofing. The less expensive metal roofs were not desirable because of the noise produced during a rain. In 1972, for the entire province of Andahuaylas, 93.1 percent of the homes were adobe and 55.2 percent of the roofs were Spanish tiles. Residents often commented on the increased number in Spanish tile roofs in Pacobamba since potato cash cropping had begun. All homes in Pacobamba had dirt floors inside the house. A few houses had cement bases on the outside walls. Community Services 99.92:. Pacobamba's water was obtained from two rivers. One river above the town supplied the houses in the area of the plaza and to the north; the other river, coming from the direction of Huancarama, supplied the rest of the village. Water was communally owned, therefore the maintenance of the irrigation canals was completed through 58 community work projects (faenas). Water usage for cr0p irrigation was controlled by an elected community member. Tickets were sold for a minimal cost by this member for the day that a resident wanted to use the water. The cost of the ticket paid for the ticket itself and a small compensation to the controller. Three tickets were sold for each day. Problems arose often over the water irrigating system for some of the following reasons: 1) often people could not get water for the days when their crops needed the water, and therefore would have to irrigate throughout the night when water was not controlled; 2) if a farmer had plots in more than one region of the community, more than one day had to be requested, thereby decreasing the availa- bility of days for other residents; 3) large plots could require more than one day to irrigate; and 4) the irriga- tion process cut off water for those homes below the site of irrigation; families could go days without having water flow by the house. Water usage was one of the principal sources of strife in the community since water was such a limited and valued commodity. The water used for consumption was obtained directly from the irrigation ditches, from a gathering hole (a deposit for irrigation ditch water), or from a natural spring. The last case was the least common as the springs were typically in the lower part of Pacobamba, well past 59 the last houses. Sanitation Sanitation facilities were limited in Pacobamba. This researcher found that three out of thirty families interviewed, mentioned having a specific area for human excretions. Only one actually had an outhouse. The only other outhouse known to the researcher was that of the school. The majority of the villagers used their fields as the communal waste disposal area. Communication In late 1983, Pacobamba had a telegraph service which worked two days a week. Telephone service was to be installed soon. Previously existing telephone lines were stolen, thereby interrupting the service. Telephone users now travel to Huancarama to make a call. Security The entire province of Andahuaylas was under military rule due to the state of emergency declared by President Belaunde after terrorist attacks in the region in early 1983. Headquarters for the military were in Andahuaylas. The military and civilian police posts for Pacobamba were in Huancarama. Any official visits to Pacobamba occurred only upon complaints from a resident and a request for the authorities' assistance. 60 Education Pacobamba had an elementary school for grades kinder- garten to sixth. The school was staffed by six teachers: one had only a secondary education, two had a secondary education and were taking courses to become licensed teachers, two had finished the university, and one (the director) had graduated from the Peruvian equivalent of a teacher's college. According to the school's director, there was an approximate 70 percent enrollment of the children that were of school age in Pacobamba. Thirty percent of the children that started school finished the sixth grade. Principal reasons for not finishing their primary educa- tion included: 1) parents forced them to work on the land; and 2) lack of interest in school on the part of the parents and the children. Approximately 6 percent of the children that started primary school, went on to the high school in Huancarama or elsewhere. In the 1972 census for the province of Andahuaylas, 29.5 percent of the population over 5 years of age was literate. The average rate for men was 43 percent, for women it was 14 percent. In the sample population 20 percent of the women and 27 percent of the men finished sixth grade or higher. Fifty percent of the women and 33 percent of the men never attended school. 61 The government maintained a nutrition program (Plan de Alimentacidn Escolar) in the schools. United States Food for Peace commodities were combined with local donations of potatoes to prepare the children's lunches. For 150 enrolled children in Pacobamba, for March to December, 1983, the following foods were provided: 90 kilos of dry milk powder, 112.5 kilos of Corn-Soy-Milk mixture, 112.5 kilos of bulgar wheat, 90 kilos of oats, 80 kilos of rice, and 7 gallons of vegetable oil. Medical A medical outpost in Pacobamba was under construction. No date for its completion or staffing had been set. Therefore residents had to travel one hour to Huancarama to visit the medical outpost and to Abancay, four hours in truck, for the hospital. The outpost in Huancarama was staffed by a primary health worker (sanitario), a German nurse, and two auxiliary workers. The facilities included: examination, minor surgery, and growth monitoring rooms; facilities for overnight stays, pharmacy stocked with basic medicines price-controlled by the government, laboratory, and living quarters for the health worker. A "Mothers' Club" was held at the outpost for partici- pants of the growth monitoring program. In the past, the government had provided dry milk powder for the program's children diagnosed as malnourished. More recently, the milk was only provided by CARITAS (Peruvian non-profit 62 aid agency) and quantities were not reliable. The amount that came would be divided among the number of partici- pants, and often would be less than one kilo per month. According to the health worker, respiratory infections were the main illness in children during the dry season. During the rainy season, gastrointestinal infections and diarrhea became severe. An estimated four children from Pacobamba died during the 1983 wet season from dehydration due to diarrhea. The infant mortality rate for the department of Apurimac for 1972 was 108 per 1000 (Ministerio de Salud, 1974). Religion The majority of the population in Pacobamba was Catholic. A few families had converted to Evangelism. The Catholics frowned upon the Evangelists as the latter group would go up into the mountains from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday to worship. The Evangelists in return would denounce the Catholics because of their alcohol drinking. Many of the social customs were based on drinking rituals, and the resident evangelists were socially ostracized from community gatherings. Several residents last year left the community and went to the jungle with other evangelists to 6 described "paradise" to live. 63 Spiritual Illness Pacobamba residents identified four distinct spiritual illnesses that were commonly believed to manifest them- selves in biological symptoms. These illnesses included susto, maZ viento, pagapa and envy. Susto, or fright, was the most common explanation for illness of a child. Its symptoms ranged from diarrhea to vomiting to stupor to subtle changes in the eyes. Only a healer, a person trained in identifying and curing snsto, could identify the etiology of the illness. During the prayer sessions of one healer, the ill individual's head and hands were rubbed as the healer repeated the Catholic's Creed, in Spanish. The healer explained the illness as follows: when a child fell or was startled, the child could suffer from susto. The child's spirit would leave the body and the child would become sick. Therefore the healer had to call back the spirit and ask it to return to the child's body so that the child would become well. Mal viento Finally, maZ viento or bad wind, was a common explana- tion for a wide variety of illnesses, from spontaneous abortions to the flu. It could be associated with one area of Pacobamba that was thought to be dangerous because 64 of its wind, or to sudden changes of temperature that one might experience going from the warm house to the cool night air. £32322 Pagapa occurred at the time of birth. When a child was born with the mother in a squatting position, the child could be accidentally dropped on the dirt floor. If this occurred, the earth received the child's spirit at the site of the fall. Without his or her spirit, the child became sick. To cure the illness, an exchange of a wide variety of foods for the spirit was made. The foods were buried in the spot where the child fell and the earth would only then release the child's spirit. This illness required a trained healer to identify the problem and the cure. Envy Illness could also be brought on by an envious person who placed a curse on the envied individual. A fortune card reader was necessary to identify the curse placed on the sick individual. A series of rituals were performed during the night to break the curse by daylight. Interestingly, one could only rid oneself of such a curse by passing it on to someone else. The healer placed the curse on a toad and the toad at daybreak was taken to the farthest crossroad from the village and released. Once 65 released, the person that first crossed the toad would be inflicted with the curse. For all these spiritual diseases, Pacobamba residents considered Western medicine useless. Pe0ple concluded that the source of their illness was spiritual before seeing the health worker or after receiving a treatment that did not work. In any case, these explanations of disease were dangerous for infants when they kept the child away from treatment for diarrhea or other diseases. Emplgyment Community Work Projects Community projects, or faenas, were an important means of maintaining communal property. Irrigation ditches and roads were upgraded; schools, churches, and the city hall were built. Each community member was responsible for providing a male adult to work on all projects approved by the mayor. Those that did not or could not send a male family member had to pay the cost of a laborer's day wages, approximately U.S. $1.00. Off-farm Labor Before the agrarian reform affected most of the haciendas in the early 1970's, it was common for the male residents (and their wives if they were still without children) to travel to haciendas and work for an established 66 period of time. The system of obtaining work hands for an hacienda was managed by an "enganchador" (the person who "hooks" another). The enganchador would arrange loans for villagers at a time of need, in return for a promise to work at an hacienda for usually 90 to 120 days. The enganchador would pick up the workers and return them home after their debt was paid. It was not uncommon that a worker would become further indebted at the hacienda through drinking or purchases at the store, and would have to continue working to pay off the new debt as well as the old one. Most residents from Pacobamba mentioned haciendas in the departments of Cuzco, Ayacucho, and Huancavelica as common work spots. After the agrarian reform disrupted the system of haciendas, the off-farm work sharply declined. A few residents still travel to the coffee, tea, coca, and cocoa cooperatives in Cuzco. With the introduction of cash cropping, the necessity of traveling off the farm to find income was lessened. In 1983, only 46.7 percent of this sample population claimed to work off their own land and 64 percent of those worked as farm laborers for other Pacobamba residents. In November, 1983, a male and female farm laborers' wages were 2000 and 1500 soles respectively (about U.S. $1.00 and $0.75. A few residents obtained cash by working in Abancay. A basket weaving factory job could offer a skilled worker 67 an average of 75,000 soles (U.S. $32.00) per month. Finally, a few residents were skilled laborers, such as house builders and carpenters. These people worked as agriculturalists and supplemented their income with work requiring their skills. Cottage Industries According to the 1972 census, 99.3 percent of the Pacobamba district p0pu1ation had no cottage industry (Oficina de Estadistica y Censos, 1974). This differed from this researcher's own findings, and daily experiences. Of the sample population, 36.6 percent participated in some type of money making work (selling cheese or eggs, or spinning thread to sell). Other residents that were not part of the study were known to weave for community members. In the higher altitude communities, it was common to sell cheese on Thursday to a buyer from Pacobamba who would then resell the products on Sunday in Huancarama for a profit. Most cheese bought in Huancarama on Sundays was for the Abancay market. The development of the Abancay cheese market has greatly affected the availa- bility of cheese in Pacobamba. Whereas three years ago cheese was plentiful and could be readily bought, this year it was unavailable to the local residents. Local explanations were the following: local buyers obtained 68 advances from Abancay merchants, and in turn advanced the money to the cheese makers so as to have cheese ready for a certain date. The cheesemaker might receive 400 to 600 soles (about U.S. $.25) per cheese, which was resold for 650 to 800 soles. Once in the capital of Abancay, the cheese was worth lOOO soles. The local cheese maker often did not want to sell to a local resident out of fear that the local resident might ask for a discount. To avoid the uncomfortable and undesirable situation, the cheesemaker usually found it easiest to say, "manan kanchu" (there is none). The cheese was left to be sold on a purely business level where one could acceptably defend one's financial interests. Climate Pacobamba residents' houses lay between 2589 meters and slightly above 2720 meters (Instituto Geografico Militar, 1971). The region is affected by two seasons: dry season started around May and continued through November; the rainy season began in December or January and continued through April. It was normal to have an occasional rain during the dry season. Many villages became totally isolated during the rainy season as mud roads became impassible. The southern mountain region suffered from a drought in 1983 which only mildly affected the precipitation in the province of Andahuaylas. The 69 lack of sporadic rain during the dry season in 1983 has negatively affected pastures and caused for concern that the rains in early 1984 will not be sufficient. In response to this concern, the government has included the Andahuaylas province in the state of emergency for the drought, to allow special funding to enter the region for relief work. Agriculture The yearly importance of a crop was determined by the family's needs and the national market. Beans, for example, reportedly did not receive a high market value in 1982 and therefore were not grown in 1983. Potatoes, however, had been increasing in importance in the last five years. Potatoes had been traditionally grown in small quantities for home consumption as Pacobamba was not considered appropriate potato growing land. The oldest potato cash cropper started alone in 1975. The family then moved to Lima at the end of the 1970's, interrupting their cash cropping. Other families soon followed the cash cropping idea when the national agrarian university La Molina developed better potato seed that was appropriate for a moderate climate and altitude found in Pacobamba. The principal food crops in Pacobamba were potatoes, corn, wheat, and peas. Alfalfa was grown for animals. 70 Potatoes were planted after the rainy season and harvested four to six months later (called the Maway or medium harvest). One resident this year was experimenting with a parcel of land to see if potatoes could grow during the rainy season. Although nutrient depletion was acknowledged, only increased use of fertilizers were implemented to combat it. Reported potato yields in 1983 were ranging from 51 arrobas (586.5 kilos) to 150 arrobas (1725 kilos) per tarea (one-eighth of a hectare). Residents explained the yield differences by seed quality. Wheat was grown with irrigation during the dry season, in the lower areas ongacobamba. During the rainy season, wheat was placed in the semi-terraced areas above the village. Starting in October through November, the corn was sown with the reported earliest harvest being ready in January. Corn and potatoes were the basis of the diet and corn was also used for animal feed. Seed for corn was obtained from last year's crop, through the exchange of a product such as potatoes for seed, or an exchange of varieties of corn seed. According to residents, potato seed should be changed each harvest to protect the crop from pests. Many residents give their seed to residents of higher alti- tudes, who plant and harvest during opposite seasons as their lowland counterparts. Once the high altitude residents had harvested their potatoes, they returned an 71 equal amount of seed from other towns such as Anda- huaylas, where reportedly high yields were obtained. Mean total area per family in the Pacobamba district, according to the 1972 census, was 5.16 hectares, divided into an average of 3.37 parcels (Oficina Nacional de Estadistica y Censos, 1975). The census found that of the total land surface, 30.4 percent was worked land, 40.7 percent was natural pastures, and the remaining was forests, permanent cultivation, or other types. Garden Garden plots ranged from non-existent to five tareas (five-eighths of a hectare). Water appeared to be the limiting factor for garden size. Those families living above the irrigation ditches had no or very limited gardens. Typical products grown were cooking herbs (coriander, parsley, huacatay, paico), onions, cabbage, garlic, and fruits such as lemons, avocados, and medlar. A few families grew cabbage and cauliflower as a cash crop to sell to residents and to Abancay merchants in Huancarama. One family that did not cash crop in potatoes claimed to make a better living by cash cropping a variety of garden products. 72 Festivals and Special Deys Special days in Pacobamba included community-wide and family celebrations. The Christmas-New Year's festival was the highlight of the year. Everyone also gathered for the school's fair. Private celebrations for San Juan and All Saints' Day were mentioned by residents. Christmas The Christmas festival actually began one year in advance. After the previous festival ends, a new sponsor must volunteer for the following year. "Volunteering" could mean just that or that the Christ child figure was brought to someone's house and that family was asked to accept the sponsorship. The new sponsors arranged in September an "ipaZZa", a party for the entire community to gather and make donations for the Christmas festival. The ipaZZa was meant to show the generosity of the sponsors and their faith that the other residents would be equally generous. Elaborate meals were prepared in 1983 with two courses including meat, and unlimited alcohol in the form of a corn drink (chicha) and unrefined alcohol from grapes (trago). A main table was set up for the prestigious members of the community. Offense was taken when those families formally invited with a written invitation did not attend. People not invited were welcome as long as they contributed to 73 the Christmas festival. During the evening, the sponsors went from guest to guest and asked what each would offer for Christ. The godfather of the festival noted the promised contributions (which ranged from a chicken to a cow, money to costumes for dancers). Each promise was met with a drink of alcohol. At the completion of the list, all contributions were read annuifor the approval of the guests. Contributions were delivered to the sponsors sometime in November or December. The actual festival could take place over Christmas or New Year's; because of the expense, both were not celebrated separately. Several days included dancing, preparations of food, music, and performances. An "embassador" riding the lead horse announced the dancers to perform, explained each action and read the list of contributions to the festival (Vivianco, 1972). Dancers, with their faces painted black, represented the kings that had come from afar bringing gifts for Christ. Mass was held by one of the prists from Huancarama. A successful Christmas festival was considered to be a reflection of faith in Christ; more faith corresponded to a better festival. The sponsor had honored Christ child by holding a festival and therefore, it was thought, good luck should come to the sponsor. It also enhanced the prestige of the sponsor in the community by showing excessive generosity in the festival. 74 School Fair Another community-wide celebration was the two-day school fair. This was a money-making activity for the school, which every year met with severe criticism from the residents, who felt that the money never went to improve the school but instead went directly to the teachers' pockets. Criticism did not stop the residents from participating in the fair. Soccer competition games were held all day long in the plaza, a bull fight was held in the make-shift ring in the school yard, and stands were set up with favorite dishes: sheep meat stew, chicken soup, potatoes with cheese sauce, baked guinea pig with peas, roasted pig, chicha, and beer. San Juan On the 24th of June, San Juan was celebrated. This holiday was a mixture of Catholic and ancient religious beliefs. One resident explained the day as the celebra- tion to ask the aputayta (the most powerful mountain spirit) to protect the families' animals. Chicha was blown toward the mountain over the animals' body as a gift to the spirit. Bright ribbons were strung through the protected animals' ears as ornaments. The tails of the animals were cut off and braided together. The braid was wrapped around a pot of chicha and alcohol and buried in the ground. The braid would keep the animals from ever 75 straying from each other; the pot of chicha, should it not dry up over the year, would signify that there would not be a lack of water. Diet The Pacobamba diet was based on three meals a day, with no in-between meal eating. Breakfast was generally soup. For families that herded animals far from the house, this meal was their main meal of the day. Soups might include whole wheat kernels, corn, pumpkin (zapaZZo), and squash (calabaza), rice, or noodles. Potatoes always complemented the main ingredient. A few families had adopted more urban customs and consumed eggs and bread for breakfast. Hurpada, a hot gruel of a variety of grains and legumes, was served no matter what the economic level of the family. Lunch was served around noon. For traveling family members, this might only have been corn. But for most people, it was a large meal. It usually included soup and often a second course of potatoes, peas, or wheat. Eggs were used when available, either fried or scrambled into the fried potatoes. Chicken and guinea pig were saved for guests or special days such as a birthday. Beef consump- tion was common only when an accident occurred, such as a cow falling off a cliff. Pork consumption was determined by the family pig's age, and the need for lard. The 76 slaughter would be planned around a special day. Dinner was often soup, but might have included the second course from lunch should some be left over. It was not common for one soup to be prepared for the entire day. Fresh soup was made for each meal. With every meal, either mote (boiled corn kernels) or cancha (toasted corn kernels) were served. Fluids were not served during a meal. Once the food had been consumed, hot teas were served. A tea might have been made of lemon tree or celery leaves, cinammon sticks, fennel leaves, or other assorted wild herbs. Actual black tea or coffee was rare. Restriction on Diet Few restrictions on the diet were mentioned to the researcher. Women, just after giving birth, were given about a week of a high animal protein diet to regain their strength. Infants, however, were thought to be able to eat any food an adult could eat after four to six months of age. The restriction on their weaning diet was a policy of moderation; foods should be introduced slowly so as not to upset their system. Other researchers in nearby communities have reported much more elaborate restrictions, as mentioned in the review of the literature. The diet of the post-partum woman was the only diet that was the same in both the present research and that of Cayon (1971). 77 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The use and dietary effect of three non-locally produced foods were studied through various data collected. The data from the socioeconomic family inter- view schedule were described qualitatively and quantita- tively as frequencies. Food buying practices, with special emphasis on noodles, iodized salt, and bottled composite oil, were tabulated. Significant correlations between food buying habits and the socioeconomic data were described. Store inventory data were compiled to identify foods available through the market system. The percentage of stores carrying each product and the origin of the product was noted. Twenty-four hour dietary recalls were analyzed for nutrients and compared with FAO recommended intakes. Height, weight, and triceps skinfold measurements were compared with the United States reference p0pulations. Results from the recalls and the anthropometric values were correlated with the frequency of non-locally produced foods in the diet. These results and discussion follow. 78 79 Fami1y3Interviews Twenty-four of the thirty families sampled completed the entire study (including the socioeconomic and food buying interview schedule, three twenty-four hour dietary recalls, and three sets of anthropometric measurements). Reasons for incompleted sets of interviews are shown in Table 6. Table 6. Reasons for incompleted interviews. (n=6) Reason for incompletion Number of families Three or more visits were denied or 1 postponed indefinitely Participant did not return to Pacobamba within researcher's stay (working elsewhere) 3 Participant refused cooperation 2 Socioeconomic Status of Families Almost all (93%) of the interview schedules were answered by women, the other two families were repre- sented by the father. Housing Table 7 has the housing characteristics of the sample population. Most (63%) of the families sampled had their house located below a functioning irrigation canal. The rest of the families were in the plaza with water piped 80 Table 7. Housing characteristics. (n=30) Characteristic Families affected % Wall Material: Adobe 87 Adobe and cane 10 Cane 3 Roof Material: Spanish tiles 7O Straw l3 Eternite 13 Metal 4 Door Material: Wood 77 Cane 3 Sticks 3 No door 17 Number of Tables: None 43 One 37 More than one 20 Number of Chairs: None 37 One 37 More than one 26 Number of Beds: None 10 One: 40 More than one 50 Radio: None 7 One 80 More than one 13 Luxury items (has at least one): Sewing machine 17 Stove (kerosene) 7 Record player 3 Oven 30 81 Table 7 (cont'd.) Lightinga: Kerosene lamp 97 Flashlight or lantern 13 Outhouse Facilities: Available 13 Not available 87 Source of Water: Irrigation ditch 40 Gathering hole (from ditch) 43 Faucet 13 No personal source, uses neighbor's 4 aTotal does not equal 100% as some respondents had both categories. 82 to the above (13%) or above an irrigation canal (24%). The position of the house in relation to the canal affected the length of time spent each day carrying drinking water to the house, the feasibility of having a garden, and the crops that could be grown. The most limiting situation was that of living above the canal, where farmers had only the rain to irrigate their fields. The quality of housing, as defined by the types of walls, roof, door, and water supply differed significantly (PS.05) according to the house's location with the highest quality housing in the plaza and the poorest housing in areas above the irrigation ditches. Generally, houses were made of mud and straw sun-baked adobe bricks, Spanish tiled roofs, and had wooden doors. The houses averaged 3 rooms. More than half of the respondents had at least one table and chair. Ninety percent or more of the families had one or more beds and a radio. Only a few families had an oven for baking or luxury items such as a sewing machine. All families cooked with firewood; all but one lit their homes with kerosene lamps. Water was normally obtained from the irrigation ditch, and few families had any outhouse facilities. 83 Family Composition The family size ranged from 3 to 15, with a mean of 7, for the sample population (See Table 8). Seventeen percent of the families were extended. The most common extended members living in the house were grandchildren less than one year of age. Other relations in homes included grandmother, grandchildren one to three years of age, teenage nephew, daughter-in-law, and son-in-law. One family had a non-kin living with them, working as an employee. Education Half of the female participants never had attended school (See Table 9). Of those girls that did have the opportunity to go to school, only 13 percent finished primary school, and none finished high school. Less than half (47%) of the women could communicate in Spanish. The educational level of the male participants was higher than the female participants. Many (67%) of the men had attended school and some of them (20%) had finished primary school. One man had also finished high school. Most of the men (70%) spoke Spanish, in addition to the native Quechua. The sample population's educational level was slightly higher than that reported for the Andahuaylas province in the 1972 census. The low level of educational 84 Table 8. Family composition. (n=12) Relationship of extended family Households affected member to house ownera of total sample population, % Grandchild less than 1 year old 1 Grandchild 1 to 3 years old Teenage nephew Daughters-in-law, 10 to 17 years old Daughters-in-law, over 17 years old Son-in-law, over 17 years old Grandmother Non-kin member of household wwwwwwwo al7 percent of the total families had one or more extended family members. 85 Table 9. Educational level of participants. (n=30) Level of Education Reached Adult Participantsa Years of Schooling % Female: None 50 Primary: first 7 second 7 third 17 fourth O fifth 10 sixth 7 Secondary: first 3 Male: None 33 Primary: first 10 second 13 third 17 fourth 3 fifth 10 sixth 7 Secondary: first 0 second 3 third 3 aTotals may not equal 100% because of rounding. 86 achievements for the entire province was probably due to the isolation of some communities and their distance from the schools in the rural areas such as Pacobamba. The number of schools in the region and an increased emphasis in education in the last 10 years might also be factors in the noted increase in the educational level. Travel Experience Most (69%) male participants had lived in places other than Pacobamba during some period of their life. In a few cases the travel came while serving the Armed Forces; others left Pacobamba to look for work. The average amount of time spent living in another place was two years, with a range from zero to sixteen years. The most frequently mentioned area (32%) that was visited was the "montana", the semi-jungle region that previously had haciendas (See Table 10). Other areas visited included the coastal towns (24%), Lima (17%), Abancay and other mountain cities (7%), and other villages (3%). Seventy percent of the female participants lived in other areas of Peru. The women, however, had a longer average stay, of 2.4 years, with a similar range of zero to fifteen years. The most frequently mentioned area of stay was the "montana" region (33%). Other places mentioned included Lima (23%), coastal towns (17%), Abancay and other mountain towns (13%), and other mountain 87 Table 10. Travel by participants. (n=30) Area Visited Families Range of Visits % Years Female: Mountain village 7 4-15 Abancay or other mountain l3 0-1-4 citv Montana (semi-jungle) 30 0.1-4 Coastal towns 17 0.6-4 Lima 23 0.3-8 Male: Mountain village 3 Abancay or other mountain 7 2-3 city Montana 32 0.3-4 Coastal towns 24 0.3-16 Lima 17 0.1-6 Other family members: Abancay or other mountain 7 1-14 city villages (7%). In comparison with the male participants, the women had a slightly higher visiting rate to Lima and large mountain cities such as Abancay. The men tended to go to the coastal towns more than women. This difference in visiting areas might reflect the typical jobs found for men and women. Men commonly looked for agricultural positions found on haciendas along the "montana" or coast. Women might have been more likely to look for domestic servants positions in the large cities, such as Lima and Abancay. 88 Money Making Projects Many (63%) of the families had some means of obtain- ing cash, other than selling agricultural products or livestock (See Table 11). Thirteen percent of the Table 11. Means to obtain cash (n=30) Families Involved in Activity Task % Sell cheese or eggs 10 Spin thread 3 Rent land or animals 20 Resell agricultural products 3 Own store 7 More than one of the above 20 None of the above 37 ’T00' Father is local farm laborer 30 Father is farm laborer on hacienda 7 Father is factory worker in Abancay 7 Father is skilled worker in Pacobamba 3 Father does not work off own land 53 100 families had cottage industries (making or selling cheese or yarn); 20 percent rented their land for potato harvest, or bulls for plowing; two families had a store; one family bought and resold agricultural products from the district; and 20 percent of the families did more than one of these options to make money. All of the above mentioned tasks except the cottage industries could be completed by the man or the woman of 89 the family. Whereas men were often weavers, only women spun yarn or made cheese. Both men and women could work as farm laborers, though it was more common for the man to work in the field and the woman to take care of the animals, the children, and the house. Less than half (47%) of the fathers in the sample worked off their own farm. The majority of the men (64%) that gained day wages were local farm laborers, earning about U.S. $1.00 per day. Other reported jobs included basket weaving in Abancay (14%), working as a farm laborer on cooperatives in Cuzco (14%), and working as a skilled laborer in Pacobamba (7%). The average number of days worked off the farm was 102 per year. Available Food Products . Agriculture Most families (77%) owned their parcels of farmland. A few (10%) owned some land and rented additional parcels for potato cash-cr0pping. Only 13 percent of the families rented all the land they farmed. All of those last families were young couples that had not yet been able to buy their own land. The most commonly grown crops in Pacobamba were corn (93%), potatoes (87%), and wheat (57%) (See Table 12). A few families (33% or less) also grew peas, broad beans, calabaza, zapaZZo, beans, and barley. The majority of 90 Table 12. Agriculture and livestock production. (n=30) Agricultural Product Families with Product or Livestock or Livestock % Agricultural Product: Corn 93 Potato 87 Wheat 57 Onion 53 Cabbage 37 Peaches 37 Peas 33 Avocado 30 Garlic 30 Lettuce 20 Lemon 17 Tomato l7 Cauliflower l7 Chilie peppers 17 Medlar l3 Carrots 13 Sugar cane 13 Other fruits 13 Broad beans 10 Sweet potatoes 7 Squash (Calabaza) 7 Pumpkin (ZapaZZo) 7 Caguia 7 Apple 3 Beet 3 Beans 3 Barley 3 Livestock: Chickens/roosters/chicks lOO Pigs 97 Bulls 90 Guinea pig 87 Nonmilking cows 77 Horses 63 Sheep 50 Milking cow 27 Duck 23 Rabbit 7 Turkey 3 Goat 3 91 the families growing corn and wheat (77% and 94% respec- tively) did not sell any of the harvest. On the other hand, potatoes were primarily a cash crop and 85% of the growers sold part of their harvest. More than half (57%) of the families had a garden. The most common items in the gardens were onions (53%), cabbage (37%), peaches (37%), peas and herbs (33% each), and avocados and garlic (30% each). Some garden items seemed to be related to the economic level of the family, as shown by the level of housing conditions. Herbs, which were the most traditional item of a garden, were predominantly grown by the poorest families (60%). Fifty—five percent of those families that grew'cabbage, a fairly new product for Pacobamba gardens, were in the highest category of the housing index. Like potatoes, many of the garden products were sold for cash. Over half (60%) of the families growing cauliflower and carrots sold the products for cash. Lettuce, cabbage, and onions were also sold by at least 25 percent of the families growing the products. Livestock Every family had chickens. The number of chickens ranged from two to fifteen, with a mean of six. In addition, families had a mean of five chicks, and two roosters. Pigs were nearly as common as chickens, only 92 one family reported not owning a pig. The mean number of pigs was two per family with a range of zero to nine pigs. The other important livestock raised by Pacobamba families included bulls (90%), guinea pigs (87%), and non-milking cows (77%). Table 12 lists all other live— stock that were reported by the families and the percent- age of families raising each type of animal. Food Store Inventory Half (54%) of the stores surveyed were located in Pacobamba, the remaining stores were in Huancarama (46%). Participants mentioned shopping in both villages. Huancarama shops were not visited daily because of the distance from Pacobamba (approximately seven kilometers). Many items were more expensive or not available in Pacobamba. Table 13 lists the foods sold in the stores that were surveyed, and whether or not the food was locally or non-locally produced. The most common store food items (sold by over half the stores surveyed) were: sugar, iodized salt, noniodized salt, candies, soft drinks, bulk noodles, rice, sardines, and spices. One-quarter to one-half the stores sold prepared wheat flour, corn, bread, cookies, tuna in oil, alcohol, wine, and evaporated milk. Few stores sold the remaining food items, such as 93 Table 13. Foods available in local stores. (n=1l) Stores with Item Locally Produced (LP) F°°d Item % Non-locally Produced (NLP) Sugar 73 NLP Iodized salt 73 NLP Non-iodized salt 73 NLP Soft drinks 73 NLPa Candies 73 NLPb Rice 64 NLP Noodles (bulk) 64 NLP Sardines in tomato b sauce 55 NLP Spices 55 NLP Evaporated milk 46 NLP Cookies 46 NLP Tuna in oil 36 NLP Prepared wheat flour 27 NLP Corn 27 LP Bread 27 LP Alcohol (trago) 27 NLP Bottled oil 27 NLP Bulgar wheat 18 NLP Chilie peppers 18 LP Cabbage 18 LP Carrots 18 LP Potatoes 18 LP Greens (herbs) 18 LP and NLP Onions 18 LP Tuna in tomato sauce 18 NLP Bulk oil 18 NLP Margarine l8 NLP Coffee/tea l8 NLP Processed bread product 9 NLP Broad beans 9 LP Tomatoes 9 NLP Pumpkin (ZapaZZo) 9 LP 00a 9 LP Cassava 9 NLP Garlic 9 LP Banana 9 NLP Beef 9 LP Boxed noodles 9 NLP Beer 9 NLP Pudding/packaged sweet chicha 9 NLP 94 Table 13. (cont'd). Chocolate 9 NLP Fresh milk 9 LP Eggs 9 LP aone type of soft drink is made in the city of Anda- huaylas, the others are national products. bsome of these products were contraband from Argentina and Bolivia. 95 fresh vegetables, processed bread, tuna in tomato sauce, packaged noodles, beer, oil, drinks, and milk and egg products. Store owners said that the highest quantity of goods sold was in sugar, salts, rice, and noodles. Oil purchases varied with the season, high when lard was scarce and decreasing when lard was available. One store owner mentioned that canned fish in the past had been a big seller, but due to the rapid increases in prices, it was almost prohibitive for most peasants (about U.S. $1.00 for a can, or a day's wages). Soft drinks were present in most stores, but were a luxury item for most pe0ple. Candies seemed to be purchased mostly by school-age children. Study's Focus on Non-locally Produced Foods Three non-locally produced foods were chosen to be the focus of this study based on the following criteria: 1) the food acted as a replacement to a previously used, or traditional, food item; 2) the food was available through the local stores; and 3) based on participant observation, the food appeared to be an important addition to the diet. Below is a brief description of each food chosen, iodized salt, noodles, and bottled oil, and the contribution each could make to the diet. 96 Iodized Salt In communities that are located in goitrous regions such as the Andes, where the iodine content of the environment is low and rich dietary sources of iodine are not available, iodized salt represents an important source of the mineral. The researcher could only report two cases of goiterous-like masses resembling grade three in the classification system by Perez, Scrimshaw, and Munoz (Jelliffe, 1966). Health statistics from 1960 showed Apurimac to have the third highest incidence of endemic goiters, with 9.88 percent of the population affected (Kelly and Snedden, 1960). Cretinism, myxedema, and goiters were most prevalent between 1000 to 3000 meters above sea level, within which was the research site of Pacobamba. No recent health statistics on goiters were available at Abancay's Health Ministry. The United States National Research Council and the WHO recommended allowances for iodine for adults is 150 pg per day (National Research Council, 1980; and World Health Organization, 1974). The WHO suggested 300 to 400 pg per day for regions where goitrogens were present. The 150 pg could be provided by two grams of iodized salt, if there is a 1:10.000 iodine level in the table salt. The most serious health risk of low iodide intake is cretinism, hypothyroidism in infants. Children of parents with endemic goiters could be inflicted with 97 cretinism, which untreated causes retardation in mental, physical, and sexual development. The mean salt used, as measured by the adult twenty- four hour dietary recalls divided by the mean number of family members, was 0.5 tablespoons of salt or about 6 grams. With the salt iodized at a rate of one part of iodine in 10,000 parts of salt, this would have provided 461 ug of iodine. Noodles The nutrient content of noodles is seen in Table 14. It is compared with other local foodstuffs that noodles commonly partially replaced when they were used in soup (See Table 14). Potatoes were included in the list. However, potatoes normally complemented another foodstuff rather than being the primary component of the soup, so a soup with noodles and a soup with wheat would both have potatoes as a secondary ingredient. Rice was not included as it was not a local food. The principal foods listed by families as being commonly substituted by noodles in soup included wheat (72%), yellow corn (69%), white corn (chochoca) (34%), and potatoes (30%). Items mentioned by less than 25 percent of the families were pumpkin (zapaZZo), squash (calabaza), peas, barley, rice, quinua, broad beans, and dried potatoes (moraya). 98 :F umcoFacmE no: we: FF m< .maaF .esFem oe oFLoomFe_z ”seed .mp 0cm mpmmFQMH :P U¢U3PUCv Ho: mm} a? .mF—muwg mcu $0 5:6 .mme =F aneFFe>e FFFuemL ac: we: anepmmm> on» .chaszg :F umNFFmFomam peg» w>Fpmswaoou Assam: e :F mmmcmgu umusonms o» one .masmaoume :F wussmcou aFcoEEoo on o» Losogemmos on» an comm coon mm; FF mm umszucF we: chassam ~.m oe.o eo.o mo.o F.eeF e.o em N.o em eeaxee=e o.oF m~.e eo.o mo.o m.m e.o FF m.o FN emesam a.o mN.m o_.o om.o m.m N.F e e.w Fun esoo soFFo> -- mm.m mF.o -.o -- e.e Fm e.m mmm Foeeox oeoe; mFonz vamma o.eF Fe.F ao.o ao.o m.o a F.~ as oo_ez 0.3 mm._ oo.o ao.o -- e.o o o.~ moF zoFFos cacao; -- om.F mF.o «F.o -- F.F 3N e.a com museooz Fmev Amev Fmev Amev Fmav Fmev Fmev Assv eeo< easeFe an&OUm< :wumwz 103mm :FEMth < .uw> COLH Ezwupmu ckuosa mwwgopwu mwzumvoou .azom :F new: muoom wouumme Fo msegu ooF cF ucmucou ucoFsuzz .eF aneF 99 The products mentioned in Table 14 were not typically used in equal quantities for a given amount soup. There- fore, to consider their nutrient contribution to the diet, Table 15 lists them in the quantities that were usually present in a twenty-seven cup pot. The quantities were from the average recipes used in nutrient composition calculation by the researcher (for further explanation see "Twenty—four hour dietary recall", page 44). Table 16 is a listing of the percentage of nutrients of five foods that noodles commonly replace in soup, as compared with the nutrient composition of noodles. Noodles is considered to be equal to 100 percent and the other soups are compared to the noodle soup for nutrient density. White and yellow potatoes are superior to noodles in everything but protein. They particularly are high in the B vitamins and ascorbic acid, the latter which noodles do not have. Wheat kernels are superior to noodles in every category, with the highest contributions to the diet being made in calcium, iron, thiamin, and niacin. Yellow corn is only superior to noodles, for the quantity used in a soup, in thiamin and niacin. Noodles provide 50 percent more calories and protein than yellow corn, and 74 percent more calcium. The squash is superior to noodles in calcium, iron, vitamin A, ascorbic acid, and the B vitamins. Noodles, however, do provide over 50 percent more calories and protein than squash. 100 .mFaF .esFem on oFeoFmFer "eoee ooe N.FF o.F ~.F o.mmF aw oae ON cam Foooev emesam F F.e «.0 o.o o.e m FF oF mom meFv eeoo :oFFoF -- N.aF F.o F.F -- mm mmN Ne anF Foomv Foeeox Fame: m Fonz cm mem 0mm «.mm m.F e.F 3.0 oF omF Ne oemF Mooomw oFFez\ooeooa omF o.Fm ~.F F.F -- m omF be oeom ooou zoFFos\ooeFoa -- e.m m.o m.o -- a on em emNF Foemv museooz Fmev Fmev Fmev Fmev Fmsv Fmev Fmev FEoF FEaF eFo< eraFF oFeeoom< eFoer -oeFm ereFeF (.FFF eoeF ssFoFeo eFooosa moFeoFeo FemFoz Fesomeooa .aaom cF com: mmechesu umusoqms co women muoom emuumme mo acmucou acmFsazz .mF «FaaF 101 .FmaumcooF mcFucoammLFou on» an nmuF>oFa as use a: szpue we» use mmcFumm; wmmsu smug: cmumFF mmFuFacezo ecu .uFoe anFoume Fo < cFEmpF> qu>oLa yo: cu mmFuooc m eoeF asFoFeo eFoooea moFeoFao Fesomeooa .mmFuooc mo pcmpcou pcmFFpac co comma .mnooF umuomFom mo mpcoFFpaz mo mmmucwugoe .mF mFaeF 102 In this study, as has been seen in other studies in the Andes, the typical diet appeared to be low in calories, calcium, vitamin A, and riboflavin. The use of noodle soup instead of wheat soup, for instance, would have a negative effect on the calorie, calcium, and riboflavin intakes of the day. On the other hand, noodle soup would improve the dietary intake of all three of these nutrients if it were replacing corn soup. Squash soup would offer a small amount of vitamin A, but more importantly, would increase the calcium and riboflavin content over a noodle soup, but at the expense of calories. A combined diet of the noodles, grains, and vegetables would be best to maximize the nutrient content of the diet. 911 The sierran diet is typically low in fats, partially due to the high cost of oil or lard, and the family limitations on pig production. With increasing incomes due to cash cropping, the opportunity to purchase fats in the form of lard or oil, increases. Small increases in calories could be important for the weaning age children that are insuffi- cient in their caloric intake. For families with limited cash incomes, a diet might be almost void of fat as the quantity of lard (from the family pig) is used up. For families that use oil differently than lard, the oil would replace at times the lard, thereby making the lard last longer. Residents in Pacobamba 103 reported killing one to two pigs per year. With a limited cash income, oil would be an infrequent source of fat, because of its high cost. The price of vegetable or composite oil in November 1983 was about 3000 soles (around U.S. $1.50) per liter, or one and a half days of a farm laborer's wages. Cash cropping, cottage industries, and the limited off-farm work would provide the income to supplement the diet with oil. Using the mean reported oil use, the oil would provide 189 calories per family member per day. For the infant less than one year of age, that quantity is 23 percent of the FAO recommended calorie intake; for children 1 to 3 years of age, that is 14 percent of their recommended daily calorie intake. This may be a high estimate since it assumes an equal distribution of the oil for each member. Food BgyingHabits of Families Table 17 shows the foods mentioned by families that could be purchased, and those that could be obtained through trade (trueque). The answers were spontaneous; additional responses might have been obtained had probes been used. Three of the most often mentioned purchased items (over 90 percent of the families) were noodles, salt, and oil. These items were the focus of this study, to see if variation in the quantity of these foods made a significant difference on the diet's nutritional adequacy. Other NLP foods in 104 Table 17. Foods purchased or obtained through trade by Pacobamba residents. (n=30) Foodstuff Percent of Families Mentioning Food Purchased (%) Exchanged (%) Noodles 100 10 Rice 100 30 Sugar 97 50 Oil or lard 97 -- Iodized or noniodized salt 9O 17 Tuna or sardines 73 -- Evaporated milk 23 -- Spices 20 -- Oats 10 -- Vegetable (non-specified) lO -- Broad beans -- 23 Oca ; -- l3 Potatoes -- 13 Candies lO -- Bread or flour 10 7 Alcohol 3 13 Meat 3 -- Guinea pig -- 7 Cheese 3 23 Eggs 3 20 Fruit 3 3 Coffee 3 -- Corn - 26 Quinua 105 high demand were sugar and rice. Items that were obtained through trade (by over 20 percent of the families) were sugar, rice, corn, cheese, broad beans, and eggs. Certain products common to the high altitude communities, such as cheese, oca, and broad beans, were less likely to be obtainable with cash. Residents from the lower altitudes would take to the high altitude dwellers products that were not readily available in the remote areas, such as sugar, salt, or fresh garden vegetables, and exchange them for the high altitude products. This was shown in Table 17 where for instance, 23 percent of the families mentioned that cheese could be obtained by trade but only 3 percent mentioned that it was obtainable with cash. Below is a discussion of the specific buying habits and use of iodized salt, noodles, and oil. In addition, the mean purchases of sugar, canned tuna and sardines, and rice is considered along with their nutrient contribution to the average diet. Salt Stores in Huancarama and Pacobamba sold both industrial non-iodized rock salt and iodized fine grain salt. In November 1983 the rock salt was approximately 250 soles per kilogram whereas the iodized salt was 400 soles. Frequently the women complained of the poor quality and uncleanliness of the bulk granular salt. Iodized salt came 106 pre-packaged, clean, and already ground, thereby making it more appealing to the women residents. The rock salt however, was generally thought to be more potent than pre-packaged salt and therefore more economical. It could be ground down to a powder or used in the chunk form for soup. Some women limited their use of iodized salt, by claiming that the iodized salt did not produce as firm a cheese as noniodized salt did. As there is no technical explanation for this reasoning it may be only a justifica- tion for choosing the more economical salt. Iodized salt is an important non-locally produced food for a community that potentially has a high risk of goiters and cretinism. Iodized salt is still not used by 100 percent of the population. One out of the thirty women interviewed stated that she had never bought iodized salt. An additional seven women said they had used the salt in the past but no longer used it. In total 27 percent of the sample population had made the decision to not use iodized salt and thereby created a potential health risk for their families. The most frequent reason (62%) given for using iodized salt was convenience (See Table 18). Other reasons offered by the families in order of importance were: health considerations (14%), dislike of granular salt (10%), economic considerations (5%), and personal preferences (5%). The families reported using a mean of about one kilo of 107 iodized salt per week, with a range of 0 to 3.5 kilos. The mean might have been exaggerated as 48 percent of the families did not purchase salt last week. Dietary recalls did not suggest such high levels of salt intake. Only three of the thirty families (19%) had always used iodized salt. For the other families, non-iodized salt in the chunk (granular) (76%) or rock (7%) form was used in the past; the remaining participants did not specify previous use. Many (29%) of the past granular salt users still cooked with both non-iodized and iodized salt for all foods. An equal number of non-iodized salt users limited the non-iodized salt to only cheese and soup making. Noodles Noodles have been present in Pacobamba for decades, however in the past they were consumed on only special occasions. Today many families use them on a regular basis. Noodles are available as non-enriched, enriched, and with egg added. Egg noodles are approximately 5 times as expensive as the other noodles. All families reported using noodles, with a mean consumption of 2 kilos dry weight per week (See Table 17). One family reported daily c0nsumption of noodles. The range of reported consumption of noodles was 0.4 to 7 kilos per week. 108 The reasons given for using noodles were, in decreasing importance: change of a monotonous diet (47%), taste was pleasant (30%), satisfied a whim (7%), and lack of other food choices (3%). Table 18 lists the foods that noodles replace when used in a soup. As previously mentioned, the principal food- stuffs were wheat, corn, and potatoes. Other items mentioned by less than one-third the families were rice, squash, peas, pumpkin, quinua, broad beans, barley, and dried potatoes. 011 All but one family (97%) interviewed had bought bottled oil in the past. The families claimed to average 1.1 liters of oil per week, however the mean purchase of oil the week prior to the interview was only 0.7 liters (See Table 17). Most families (69%) used oil only when they did not have lard. Other reasons given for the use of oil were health (14%), enjoyable flavor (10%) and disliked the lard (7%). A few families (21%) used oil for specific foods, such as rice, noodles, and salads; the rest of the families used oil as they would use lard. Most families (69%) still preferred to use lard if it were available. 109 Table 18. Characteristics on the use of three non-locally produced foods. Characteristic MeaniS.D. Range Population kilos kilos following Belief or Practice % IODIZED SALT Amount used per week 1.0:.9 O-3.5 Percent of population presently using product 73 Reasonsfor using product: -convenience 62 -health 14 -dislike granular 10 -economical 5 -preference 5 Limitations on use of product -use for all foods 71 -not used for some foods 29 NOODLES Amount used per week 2.0il.4 0.4-7 Percent of population presently using product 100 Reasons for uSing product: -change of diet 47 -taste 30 -whim 7 -1ack of choices 3 -more than one reason 13 Replaced in the diet: -wheat 72 -yellow corn 69 -white corn 34 -potatoes 31 -rice 21 -caZabaza 14 -peas lO -zapaZZo 7 -qu£nua 7 -broad beans 7 -barley 3 -dried potatoes (moraya) 3 110 Table 18. (cont'd.) 9_1_l_-. Amount used per week 1.11.8 0-3 liters Percent of population presently using product Reasons for using product: -lack of lard -health -taste -disliked lard Limitations on use of product -used for all foods -used for specific foods 111 Other Non-locally Produced Foods Families were also asked about their use of sugar, canned fish products, and rice. Typically, sugar was purchased by residents on a weekly basis. Most (67%) families had bought sugar in the week prior to the inter- view, and a median purchase was 2.9 kilos. The mean was not reported here as each of five families had purchased that week a 50-kilo bag of sugar for several month's use, thereby distorting the statistic. A mean monthly use of sugar was 12.6 kilos. The mean number of cans of tuna or sardines purchased in the previous week was 1.4, with a range of 0 to 6 cans. Many (37%) of the families reported no purchasing sardines in the last week. The mean for rice purchases was 1.7 kilos, ranging from O to 5 kilos. A few (17%) Of the families had not purchased rice in the previous week. Sugar, fish, and rice were used more to supplement the diet, rather than replace a food that was traditionally veaten in the recent past. If a family had no cash to buy sugar, no hot drink was served that day. Reported sugar use would supplement the diet with a mean of 230 calories per day per person, assuming equal distribution of calories per family member. Canned tuna or sardines was a luxury item for residents. The mean amount of fish reported to be consumed (1.4 cans) per week would provide 117.2 calories and 14 grams of 112 protein per average family member. Sardines also provided 261 mg of calcium and 0.1 mg of riboflavin, whereas tuna provided .8 mg and 0.07 mg respectively. Tuna was higher than sardines in niacin with 7.2 mg but not vitamin A with 7.22 I.U., whereas sardines had 3.1 mg niacin and 15.4 I.U. of vitamin A. Rice was infrequently used because of its cost. Between August and December of 1983 the price rose from 650 to 1000 soles (about U.S. $.30 to .50) per kilo. During the same time the selling price of potatoes fell from 7500 to around 5500 soles (U.S. $3.75 to 2.75) per 11.5 kilos, making it less likely that luxury items would be purchased. The mean rice purchase per week would provide 2.3 grams of protein, 8 mg of calcium, 0.3 mg of iron, 0.02 mg of thiamin, less than 0.01 mg of riboflavin, and 0.6 mg of niacin. Sugar is probably the most important supplementary non-locally produced food, because of its continual usage in homes of Pacobamba residents. Factors Related to the Use of Non-locally Produced Foods The housing index was designed to categorize the level of housing and to use these categories to estimate economic levels of the residents. The index was based on the type of walls, roof, doors, and source of water. Ranking of each item was determined by participant observation and 113 conversations with residents. For instance, residents said that the most desirably type of roof was Spanish tiles, it was also the most expensive. The housing index was used to determine the relation- ship between housing quality (which here estimated economic level) and use of the three chosen non-locally produced foods: iodized salt, noodles, and oil. As is shown in Table 19, the housing quality showed no significant corre- lation with the quantity of the three NLP foods consumed. Exposure to food habits in other places, measured by the amount of time spent living in other towns was thought to affect the quantity of non-locally produced foods. The relationship between the number of years the female adult spent in other communities and the number of non-locally produced foods mentioned being bought, was studied. Also the numbers of years of visits was related to the number of kilos of noodles purchased per week. The woman's visits were used because she was the food buyer and preparer and would be the most influential person in terms of the family's non-locally produced food usage. The relation- ships did not show any significant correlation (See Table 19). The educational level of the woman had no significant correlation with the amount of NLP foods mentioned in the twenty-four hour dietary recall or the number of kilos of noodles used per week. 114 Table 19. Correlation coefficients for factors related to use of non-locally produced foods. (n=30) Woman's Woman's Housing Visiting Educational Index Time Level (Pearson's r) (Pearson's r) (Pearson'srfl Kilos of salt used .24 Kilos of noodles used .29 -.05 -.ll Liters of oil used .10 Number of NLP foods mentioned in the adults' dietary recalls .27 -.12 -.05 Twenty-four Hour Dietaty Recalls The female adult was used to obtain a twenty-four hour dietary recall for herself and the child participant. In one case, the father provided the recall for the child. Any questions on the preparation of the food from the male participant was addressed to the food preparer. In cases where the food preparer was not available, and the man did not know the recipe of the food, a common recipe was used. Although the researcher attempted to equally represent all days of the week, economic constraints limited the fieldwork, and a repeated problem of finding residents at home for scheduled appointments forced the researcher to accept recalls when the participants could be found. No 115 Peruvian research has Suggested differences in the diet for varying days of the week. North American researcher Gersovitz and coworkers (1978), found women to eat more food on Sundays. If a similar situation is true in Peru and since Sunday was over represented in this study, any error due to unequal representation of the days may show an overestimation of nutrient intake. In two cases, the twenty-four hour dietary recall was not conducted for the same child that was measured. In these two cases, the anthropometrics cannot be compared directly to the diet, but they can be used to make generalizations about the family's nutritional well-being and use of non-locally produced foods. FAO Recommended Intake The results from the twenty-four hour dietary recalls are listed in Table 20. The mean calorie intake for all family members was low, ranging from 75 percent of the FAO recommended intake level for the female adult to 85 percent of the child. I Protein percentages were over one hundred percent of the FAO recommended intakes for all family members. The protein was usually from a mixture of grains and vegetables. Almost one-third of the families had no meat products (beef, chicken, guinea pig, blood or canned fish) during the three days members were interviewed for the dietary 116 mmmamom menFNF FmamF mmamFF meamm mman aneeF mmnmw meuev FFsee oFez aFmaFom amanF mmaNF eFHNFF amamm anee mmamNF omamF FFNueF uFaum mesmm mannaom Nonmm FNFaFNF manemF oeaeNF aches maneeF menmm Famnev eFFeo a a a a F a a a eFo< oFeeoome eFoer ereFeoeFm eFEeFeF < .FFF asFoFeo eFoFoea moFeoFeo mmFsoFeu .mucmFFaac use Fo mxmwcF umucmssoomg omu usevcmum use acousma new: .om anmF 117 recalls. Milk products were consumed in the families on at least one out of the three days of the dietary recalls, by 43 percent of the families. Calcium was low for all family members interviewed, ranging in mean intakes from 66 to 81 percent of the FAO recommended intakes. Milk and milk products in the house- hold were low partially due to the lack of pasture for the animals. The decrease in pasture was due to the 1983 drought. Vitamin A recommendations were only met by the children who were breast fed. Adult mean values were low, between 25 and 33 percent of the FAO recommended intakes. Pumpkin (ZapaZZo) a rich source of vitamin A, had not been available in 1983, reportedly because of problems in a local coopera- tive. Another potential rich source of vitamin A, medlar. was not in season during the months that the twenty-four hour dietary recalls were taken. For most of the dietary recalls, the main source of vitamin A was the greens and herbs used in soups. Thiamin recommended intakes were met by all family members, as were the niacin values for all but the child. Riboflavin intake was low for the adult male and female, with a mean of 72 and 75 percent of the recommended intake levels. The children's mean intake met the FAO recommended intake level. All family members met the ascorbic acid recommendations. The primary source of ascorbic acid for 118 residents was potatoes. Relationship Between NLP Foods and Dietary Adequacy The relationship between the number of non-locally produced foods reported in the twenty-four hour dietary recalls and the adequacy of the child's diet was measured. The percentage of the FAO recommended caloric intake for the child was related to the number of NLP food reported in the diet of the child and the number of NLP foods reported in the diet of the mother and father. The corre- lation coefficients are given in Table 21. The number of non-locally produced foods reported in the diet of the child and in the diets of the mother and father had no significant correlation with the calculated percentage of the FAO recommended caloric intake of the child. Table 21. Pearson's correlation coefficients for the relationship of FAO recommended caloric intake for child and non-locally produced foods. Percent of FAO Recommended Caloric Intake for Child Parti- cipant Number of NLP foods in child's diet (n=29) .04 Number of NLP foods in both adults' diet (n=24) .28 Number of kilos of noodles reported used per week (n=30) -.52* Number of liters of oil reported used per week (n=30) -.37 *pS.Ol 119 The number of kilos of noodles reported to be used per week and the percent of FAO recommended caloric intake for the child participant had a moderate negative correlation (r=-.52;ps.01); that is, as the reported usage of noodles increased, a decrease was seen in the calorie intake. This might occur if the diets low in noodles were high in the calorie-concentrated items, such as wheat. The number of liters of oil reported to be used per week had no significant correlation with the percent of FAO recommended caloric intake for the child participant. The lack of a significant correlation of the number of non- locally produced foods in the diets of the child's and adults' and the amount of oil used per week to the percent of FAO calorie recommendation met by the child's diet, may be due to several factors. The diets were a general reflection of the family pot, from which the child ate. The low variation may be explained by the group being homogeneous in their non-locally produced food usage, or that the data collection method was insufficient to pick up such variations. No correlation was evident between the amount of oil used in the diet and the caloric intake of the child. This might have been due to the following reasons: 1) there was not enough variation in the amount of oil used by the families to cause significant variations in the percent of the FAO standards for calories; and 2) the dietary recall 120 method used was not sensitive enough to pick up significant variations in the percentage of FAO standards met by the child's diet. Anthropometric Data Children Plotted data on height-for-age, weight-for-age, and weight-for-height, for the children are seen in Figures 6 through 11. For weight-for-age, most (75%) of the male children were under the 5th percentile, and all but one male child were under the 50th percentile. The female group had only about one-third (31%) of the children below the 5th percentile and had one child over the 75th per- centile. The male children equally showed low height-for- age readings, with 75 percent of the group under the 5th percentile and no child above the 50th percentile. The female children had over half (54%) of their group under the 5th percentile and also did not have anyone above the 50th percentile. When weight-for-height was plotted, no female and only 19 percent of the male children fell below the 5th percentile. Two female children were within the 90th to the 95th percentile. Using Chi Square, there was a significant difference between male and female children and the percentage of the corresponding group under and above the 5th percentile for weight-for-age (x2=5.6; ps.05), and for weight-for-height (x2=5.7; ps.05). No significant 121 Figure 6. Height-for-age for girls. 122 Height Figure 7' “Eight'IOF'age for boys. Wei ht 123 5th 0th 75th 50th 25th mo fit"? 23': Figure 8. Weight-for-age for girls. Age Weight 124 Figure 9. Weight-for-age for boys. Age Weight 125 Figure 10. Weight-for-height for girls. 95th 90th 75th 50th 25th 10th 5th Heiaht Weight 126 Figure 11. Weight-for-height for boys. 95th 0th 5th 0th 5th ‘8111 Height 127 difference was found between the sex of the child and the height-for-age percentiles. The triceps skinfold data shown in Table 22 also shows significant difference (x2=7.5; pS.Ol) in the nutritional status of males and females. While all the female children were at least at the 15th percentile or above for the triceps skinfold, the male children had 43 percent of their group under the 15th percentile. No male children had a triceps skinfold reading above the 85th percentile, whereas eight percent of the female children were between 85th and 95th percentile. The results seen in Figures 6 through 11 and Table 22 are different than results from other researchers. Other studies have found the male children to have higher percentiles on growth charts than their female counter- parts. Graham and coworkers (1980) found the growth rate of female children to fall off around three months prior to the decline in male children's growth rate. Lira (1973) similarly found a difference in the nutritional status of the two sexes, where almost fifty percent more girls than boys were defined as malnourished. The difference in nutritional status could suggest different food behaviors on the part of the parents for boys and for girls. The present research does not support Graham and Lira's results. Here, girls' height and weight nutritional status indicators showa better nutritional status. Significant .mFchmoFma summ op mF Foe mF acommpmua .mFFucmoFma sumo o» mu so; mF xeoamueue 128 new NF -- mN FFsee oFez gem we - Fm FFaee oFesoe - mF mm Fm NF . 0F oFFeo oFez m mm em - - mF eFFeo oFesod mm-mm mm-om om-mF mF-m my moFoFeFxm meooFsF - - om mm 0F m mm FFaee oFez ea NN om om - - Fm FFaee oFesod - - mF Fm Fm o mF 0F eFFeo oFez mF mF mm m mF mN - mF eFFeo oFesod FewFoe\FemFoz - - - mm - -- mF oF eFFso oFez - - - w on m em mF eFFeo oFesod oue\F;mFo: - - o m mF o mm mF eFFeo oFez - m - mF mm mm Fm mF eFFso oFeEou oae\F;uFoz mm-om oa-mF mF-om om-mm mN-oF oF-m mv c aceaFuFuFma\pcmsmF=mmmz mmFchmusma vmumum zqu mucmnFoFuFma mo ucmogma .mpcmemssmems uFomchm nee .ugaFw: .psmFm: .NN anmF 129 differences between sex and age seen in the 1972 census on the district of Pacobamba supported the present data. In the census there was a significant drop (x2=3.9; pS.05) in the percentage of male children after 12 months of age, suggesting that some factor, biological, environ- mental or social is negatively affecting the survival rates of the male children more than the female children. Various theories exist to try to explain differences of growth rates and health status of children, including social definitions for appropriate behavior toward the male and female children, the result of which could be detrimental to one of the sexes; and differing biological reactions to environmental stresses (Cassidy, 1980; Scrimshaw, 1978; Stini, 1972; and Haas, 1976). The researcher did not note any child feeding behaviors that were sex-specific, and therefore cannot support either theory or explain why the female children were superior in weight and height measurements to the male children. This finding would suggest that sex-defined feeding behaviors should be more closely studied. Adults The weight-for-height and triceps skinfold measure- ments for the adult male and females are listed in Table 22. All female participants were above the 10th percentile; only eight percent of the male participants 130 were under the 5th percentile. All triceps skinfold measurements were above the 5th percentile. Relationship Between NLP Foods and Anthropometric Measurements The number of non-locally produced foods reported in the twenty-four hour dietary recall of the child partici- pant was related with the percentiles reached on the weight-for-age and height-for-age NCHS charts, using the Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used here for rank order data because of the multiple tied ranks (Runyon and Haber, 1980). The number of NLP foods in the child's diet and the number of kilos reported used per week had no significant correlation with the plotted percentiles for the child's weight-for-age or height-for-age (See Table 23). A relationship might have been seen with measurements that were more precise than these 3 anthropometric measurements, or repeated dietary recalls that would have picked up larger variations between families usage of non-locally produced foods. 131 Table 23. Pearson's correlation coefficients for the relationship between anthropometric measure- ments to non-locally produced foods. NCHS Percentile NCHS Percentile for Weight-for-age for Height-for-age Number of NLP .22 .12 foods in child's diet (n=29) Number of kilos of .04 -.23 noodles reported used er week (n=30) Conclusions Pacobamba residents obtained their foodstuffs by three different means: family agricultural and livestock activities, trading without cash, and purchasing with cash. Each means of food acquisition provided a fairly limited range of foods. Agricultural and livestock production provided mainly corn, potatoes, wheat, and meat products. Trading alone provided high altitude grown products, such as broad beans, the legume tarhui, and cheese. Cash purchases most often involved iodized and noniodized salt, noodles, oil, sugar, and rice. A maintenance of these three food procurement methods could be important to keeping a varied diet. If, for instance, the tradition of trading foods further was replaced with cash purchasing of foods, then the ability to buy legumes or cheese would depend on the peasants'cash reserves. 132 The price of their own labor and the market value of the foods they produced would decide if the once-traded products could be purchased. Unstable market values of agricultural products might then have a detrimental effect on the ability to purchase foods and therefore vary the diet. Over 90 percent of the residents interviewed bought iodized salt, noodles, and oil on a weekly basis. The quantity of each product purchased varied according to need, personal preferences, and economic capabilities. The iodized salt was used to replace noniodized bulk industrial salt by most (73%) residents, although a few families mentioned using only noniodized salt for specific tasks, such as cheese and soup making. The iodized salt was a potentially important non-locally produced food because of its role in the prevention of goiters and cretinism. All participants used noodles in their diet, and the normal preparation technique was in soup. Noodles replaced in part a wide variety of foods and could be beneficial or harmful to the caloric and nutrient content of the diet depending on the food that was replaced. The moderately negative significant correlation (r=-.52; pS.Ol) between the number of kilos of noodles purchased per week by the family and the percentage of the FAO recommended caloric intake for the child showed that in general, as the number 133 of noodles purchased increased in the diet, there was a corresponding decrease in the dietary adequacy in calories. The negative relationship found between the number of kilos of noodles used and the caloric intake of the child in this research should be considered carefully, as they were based on only one twenty-four hour dietary recall. Should the results accurately reflect the dietary intake and the dietary recalls were not significantly affected by the "flat slope syndrome" then for a weaning age child, the results could be important to his or her well-being. The mean caloric intake of the child was 85 percent of the FAO recommendation. If the present diet was further substituted with noodles, a corresponding decline in the calorie intake would be expected. On the other hand, if noodles were presently consumed, a decrease in their use by changing to a product of higher caloric density such as wheat kernels, should show a corresponding increase in caloric intake. Oil was an important non-locally produced food because it was the most concentrated form of calories available. Although no significance between use of oil and calorie intake was found, more sensitive data collection measure- ments might have been able to give a significant corre- lation. Bottled oil was an additional source of fat and lover time, the small quantities of calories provided by the oil could add to the caloric intake of a young child's 134 diet. Other non-locally produced foods were added to the Pacobamba diet. Sugar provided extra calories and was commonly used. Rice and sardines (both expensive but well liked items) were used on special occasions and provided extra calories, protein, vitamins, and minerals. Tuna in oil was especially high in calories, due to the oil in which it was packed. Non-locally produced foods were an important part of the Pacobamba diet. People used them to vary and supple- ment their own limited diet. The quantity used was primarily limited by the family's economic means, which was determined by their ability to cash crop, have cottage industries, and work off the farm. Some products undoubtedly had a positive effect on the nutritional adequacy of the diet, such as iodized salt. The effect of noodles had to be considered on an individual food basis, because they could replace nutritionally inferior or superior products. Data from medical outposts on goiters, cretinism, and myxedema should be compiled by the Ministry of Health in Abancay, to update the statistics on the incidence of these conditions in Apurimac. With such information in hand, further research could consider the regional usage of'iodized salt and educational approaches (such as emphasizing convenience along with health) should they 135 be deemed necessary, to increase iodized salt consumption. The costs and benefits of regional price supports for iodized salt in high goitrous areas could be discussed in future research. Further research with more sensitive dietary data collection methods should be conducted to continue to monitor the use of noodles and note their role as a replacement food in the residents' diets. Additional exploration into what is considered to be the role of noodles in weaning foods will broaden the understanding of the effect noodles potentially have on the diet of Pacobamba residents. Other NLP foods could be explored to note their effect on the diet. Oil consumption should be researched with more sensitive data collection tools to note its effect on the caloric adequacy of the weaning diet. Further investigations could consider whether or not bottled oil is the best choice for caloric improvement of the diet, or if another readily available food would provide the calories and additional nutrients. Finally, additional research is needed on the signifi- cant differences found between the sexes in weight-for-age and weight-for-height, to determine the factors involved. SUMMARY Thirty randomly selected families with a weaning age child were interviewed to determine the families' food buying habits and their use of three non-locally produced foods in their diet. The three NLP foods, iodized salt, noodles, and oil, were chosen because they were replacing a previously used food, were widely available in Pacobamba, and could be important nutritionally to the diet. The families in the sample population were described from the data on the socioeconomic questions answered during the first interview. Most of the families were located downhill from an irrigation ditch, and therefore had easy access to water. The houses were generally made of mud and straw sun-baked bricks, with Spanish tiled roofs, and wooden doors. The mean family size was seven, and the majority of the families were nuclear. Half of the female and one-third the male participants did not have any formal type of school education. Almost half of the women and about one-third of the men spoke only Quechua. The majority of the male and female adults had traveled out of Pacobamba and lived elsewhere. The female participants had a slightly higher mean length of stay outside of Pacobamba than their male counterparts. The 136 137 males reported traveling to agricultural communities more than the females, which might reflect the types of jobs that each sex searched out. The males would be more able to find work on farms where the females might have looked for domestic servant jobs. Cash was obtained through three methods: cash cropping, cottage industries, and off-farm wage labor. Families generally cash cropped potatoes, a practice which had just recently begun and was involving more land each year. Some families cash cropped vegetables, to be sold in Pacobamba and Huancarama. Women often made cheese or spun thread to be sold. Other tasks included renting land or animals, buying and reselling agricultural products, or having a store. Men and women worked as farm laborers; all but two participants worked in Pacobamba. The two exceptions were working in the montafia (semi-jungle). More profitable jobs included factory work in Abancay and skilled labor work (such as house building) in Pacobamba. The food that was consumed was obtained through family agricultural production, a trade, or a purchase with cash. Almost all families owned their own land and grew corn, potatoes, and wheat. A few families had a wider variety of products including peas, broad beans, squash, pumpkin, beans, and barley. More than half the families had a garden. Commonly grown garden products included onions, 138 cabbage, peaches, peas, herbs, avocados, and garlic. Livestock owned by families was varied in types of animals but not numerous. All families had chickens. Pigs were owned by all but one family, and served as an important source of fat in the form of lard. Guinea pigs were the most important source of meat of residents as they were fairly common on special holidays. Only about one-quarter of the families had milking cows, which demon- strated the residents diets' lack of milk and contributed to the low calcium intake in the diet. In the eleven stores surveyed, the most commonly purchased foods were sugar, iodized and noniodized salt, rice and noodles. Oil was commonly purchased during the periods of the year that lard was scarce. Iodized salt was important to the diet because of the protection it gave against goiters, myxedema, and cretinism. The Andean region was One of the goiter belts of the world and a lack of iodine in the region was a health risk. Noodles had been present in the diet for years, but because of the cash cropping and increased income, residents were reporting that their consumption of noodles had increased. The nutritional significance of noodles depended on the food that they replaced. Wheat kernels, a common item in soup, were found to be superior to noodles when considered in the quantity that each were normally used in soup. However, the noodles were found to be higher 139 in calories and other nutrients except niacin and thiamin, than yellow corn. Noodles did have a moderately negative correlation (r=-.52; pS.01) with the percentage of FAO standard for calories for the child. Oil could have been an important addition to the diet as it was a concentrated form of calories. In some families it replaced lard, in others it was used to extend the lard. Over ninety percent of the families mentioned purchas- ing with cash noodles, salt, oil or lard, sugar, and rice. Iodized salt was generally purchased because it was convenient to use, that is it did not require any grinding or cleaning. Other reasons mentioned for using iodized salt were health considerations, 3 dislike of granular non-iodized salt, economic reasons, and a personal preference for the iodized salt. Some families still used both iodized and noniodized salt for all foods; others used noniodized salt for only specific foods such as cheese and soup. The mean reported purchase per week of iodized salt was one kilo, but the mean usage as shown by the adult twenty-four hour dietary recalls was 315 grams per week. Noodles were purchased to vary the diet of the resi- dents. Other reasons for purchasing noodles included enjoying the taste, satisfying a whim, and having a lack ‘ of other choices. Noodles most commonly replaced wheat, yellow corn, white corn, and potatoes in the soup. Other foods included rice, squash, peas, pumpkin, quinua, 140 broad beans, barley and dried potatoes. An average mean purchase of noodles per family per week was two kilos. The mean purchase of oil per week was 0.7 kilos. It was primarily used when there was a lack of lard, but some families bought it because of health reasons, they liked the oil or they disliked lard. Other non-locally produced foods that were present in the diet of Pacobamba residents were sugar, canned fish products, and rice. Each of these provided extra calories, and the latter two items added to the protein and vitamin and mineral content of the diet. Sugar was the most prevalent food, with a mean purchase of 2.9 kilos per family per week. The housing index, which estimated the economic status of the resident, the amount of time the female adult spent away from Pacobamba, and the female adult's educational level did not have a significant correlation with the number of non-locally produced foods mentioned as being purchased. The twenty-four hour dietary recalls showed a low mean percentage of the FAO recommended intakes for calories and calcium for all three family members. The female and male adults' diet were also low in vitamin A and riboflavin. The caloric intake of the child, as measured by the percen- tageof FAO calorie intake standard met by the diet, had a significant negative correlation (r=-.52; pS.Ol) with the 141 number of kilos of noodles reported used per week. The anthropometric data suggested a possible difference in feeding behaviors for male and female children. The height, weight, and skinfold measurements suggested that the female children were in better nutritional status than the male children. Height-for-age and weight-for-age measurements were significantly different (x2=3.92; ps.05) for males and females. The data did not support past nutrition research and merits further attention. No significant correlation was found between the number of non-locally produced foods in the child's diet and the NCHS percentile reached for weight-for-age and height-for-age. The diet of Pacobamba residents was comprised of approximately 20 percent of non-locally produced foods. Future research should continue to consider the impact of these foods on the residents' diets to insure adequate nutritional and health status of the Pacobamba residents. 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