Staff writer
GDCS
Cassava, also known as kappa and tapioca, has been found to cause a deviant form of pancreatitis among girls from Kerala, say Dr Patta Radhakrishna, the chief surgical gastroenterologist at SRM hospital, Chennai.
The link between cassava eating and the pancreatitis was noticed by a physician, P.J. Geevarghese, during his work in Kerala. Later, similar reports started emerging from other regions of the world.
The pancreatitis, also variously known as Tropical pancreatitis, Nutritional pancreatitis, Juvenile pancreatitis and Nonalcoholic pancreatitis, is vicious.
Hear Dr Patta’s brief on it:
Cassava is a root vegetable popular among the poor. Nutritionally, cassava is full of calories and carbs. It is cheap; it is found throughout Kerala; and it makes for a delectable dish when combined with fish curry — reasons for it being relished by the labouring class.
(Of course, cassava has had a status shift recently. Even the well-heeled have started developing a taste for it.)
However, after Geevarghese connected cassava to the explosion of pancreatitis among girls in Kerala, the vegetable has come into the heath watch list of at least the medical community. For good reasons too! Following his findings, news of pancreatitis in “near epidemic proportion have poured in from countries including Uganda, Jamaica, Brazil, South Africa, Argentina and Nigeria”. The traits are similar: tropical backdrop, poverty of people, lack of nutrition and consumption of cassava.
“The worry is that the very young are getting affected.” Dr Patta concludes.
- by e-mail;patta_radhakrishna@yahoo.co.in
- by phone;+(91)-9790924876
- by phone;+(91)-8220804669
- Address;SIMS (SRM Institutes for Medical Science)
Room No : 304, 3rd Floor, Jawaharlal Nehru Salai, Vadapalani, Chennai - 26
