Nutrition Day

Today we had a whole day on nutrition in Paraguay. This morning we went to some host family houses and cooked traditional Paraguayan recipes with a nutritional twist - using soy milk instead of cow´s milk, adding vegetables to a bean salad, etc. We also learned crazy stuff about nutrition, such as

-1 kilo of soybeans has the protein equivalent of 2k of meat or 58 eggs
-even tho Paraguayans eat lots of meat, many still are iron deficient b-c they don´t get enough vitamins to help absorb the iron
-Paraguayans are often iodine deficient b-c this is a landlocked country so the soil has little iodine, so that´s why we used iodine salt
-the iron that´s required in our diets is actual IRON. If you´re deficient, you can add a couple nails to your soup or put some in the bottom of your jug of water to get more iron.
-the leaves of maniocs (which are the potato-like thing that´s eaten at every meal here) are SUPER nutricious, with iron and calcium and lots of B vitamins and other things. BUT, you have to be careful and pick the leaves before the sun rises, b-c the sun brings out the ARSENIC that is found in the leaves beneath the surface or something like that. So it can be really really good for you, or poisonous, depending on if the sun has risen yet. I don´t think I´ll be pressing my luck with that one!!!