Ívina Garcia – From Cenarium Magazine
MANAUS – The invasions and illegal mining inside the Yanomami Indigenous Land leave marks beyond the environmental ones. Water is one of the first basic goods to be affected, because of the mercury used in mining, which also messes with the diet of the people and worsens the quality of life of those who are still developing, the children.
According to a Brazilian study on the nutrition of Yanomami children published this Friday, 27, at Cambridge University in the UK, ultra-processed food, severe malnutrition and worsening hunger are the main challenges faced by the Yanomami, especially the children. The survey assessed 251 Yanomami indigenous children aged 6 to 59 months, from the Auaris, Maturacá and Ariabú villages, located in Yanomami indigenous territory in the Brazilian Amazon.
Despite showing a high consumption of natural foods (93%) or minimally processed foods (56%), the study indicated that 32% of the children evaluated consume ultra-processed foods, such as powdered soft drinks, soft drinks, sweets, bread, cookies, artificial juice, artificial yogurt, canned food and instant noodles. This number was 11 times higher in Maturacá children and nine times higher in Ariabú. The lowest rate was recorded in Auaris.
“Such problems result not only from the difficulty of producing or acquiring food, but also from the historical violation of basic rights, precarious socioeconomic conditions, and land conflicts,” says an excerpt from the study.
The forced interaction of the Yanomami with non-indigenous people and land invaders has created a scenario of socio-environmental vulnerability for the people, especially the children. According to the study, this interaction has exposed children from almost every family to the consumption of processed products and ultra-processed foods of low nutritional value.
“Currently, the foods that mainly contribute to the energy intake of the Yanomami are purchased in regional markets, especially rice, tubers, beans, cassava flour, and fruits,” the article points out.
The research also points out that of the children analyzed, the prevalence of low birth weight was 11%. Stunting was 91%, of which 19% were stunted and 72% had severe atrophy. From the social point of view, the families have a common structure, with 91% of the families consisting of at least a father and a mother. Although 66% of the homes had up to nine residents, more than half of the families had no regular income, 56%, or did not participate in government programs (59%).
The research further surveyed the association between industrial food consumption and maternal stature, according to them, shorter mothers resulted in more malnourished children, about 73% of respondents.
“Our findings suggest that Yanomami families have a high degree of socio-environmental vulnerability, which results in a permanent state of food insecurity,” states an excerpt from the research.
To CENARIUM, Jesem Orellana, one of the researchers signing the paper, commented on the Yanomami mothers’ social difficulties and short stature. “This is an association that probably occurs because mothers with short stature for age (stunting) are usually more likely to have worse socioeconomic conditions and, consequently, less access to income or programs/means that allow them to ‘buy/trade/buy/bargain’ ultra-processed products. Therefore, it is not necessarily a good thing, but rather something that shows another face of inequality in a scenario of widespread nutritional disadvantage,” he said.
“Considering that indigenous peoples in Brazil suffer from cumulative deficits in access to public services, such as clean water, sewage treatment and health, when compared to the non-indigenous population, it is not possible to ignore the literature that associates rickets with sanitation and subclinical diseases, i.e., environmental enteric dysfunction. Such conditions reduce nutrient absorption or make it impossible for them to absorb nutrients from the few foods they eat and therefore
affect their growth potential,” explains the article.
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