Not so long ago, whenever Juan González would go to the butcher he’d buy a few nice steaks for himself and cow lung, known here as bofe, to chop up and feed his dog.
“Now bofe is what I eat, when I can get it,” said the 55-year-old elevator repairman on a street in the Venezuelan capital.
With prolonged shortages of basic foods, Venezuelans have been forced to shift their diets to whatever they can find. And what they can find is not necessarily healthy.
Milk, meat and beans – the main sources of protein in the Venezuelan diet – are hard to find or sold at exorbitant prices, and many are filling up on empty carbs from pasta, rice and the traditional arepa cornmeal cake.
“These fill you up and make you fat but they are not nutritious,” said nutritionist Héctor Cruces. “Viscera are high in fat and low on protein.”
A study revealed last month by Venezuela’s top three universities showed that 12% of those polled said they were eating less than three meals a day.
“And those who do have access to three meals have seen a deterioration in the quality of their diet,” said Marianella Herrera-Cuenca, of the Bengoa Foundation, an NGO dedicated to promoting nutrition.
Source: The Guardian
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