Revolutionary Nutritional Porridge Created by South African Doctor Saving Lives!

Children with Cancer generally have many problems caused by their cancer and by the cancer treatments they are undergoing, such as Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy, including losing weight, inability to eat or swallow, and an impaired immune system exactly at the time that they need everything they can get to fight this devastating disease.

Part of the answer to these problems may lay in a nutrient-loaded porridge that was developed by the late Dr Basil Kransdorff, a South African doctor,  specifically to cater to feeding HIV patients and babies.

The late Dr Basil Kransdorff and wife Rose’s work helping an NGO called CARE (Community AIDS Response) at the Joburg General Hospital, led to a worldwide debate on Food Security vs Nutrition Security.

Back in 2000 there was no medication and Doctors were telling patients diagnosed with HIV to go home, eat a healthy well-balanced diet and prepare to die. It was a difficult time when little was known about treating those living with HIV.

Dr Kransdorff was an industrial chemist by trade and a social entrepreneur at heart, and he was ‘commissioned’ by his wife to advise CARE what to put into food parcels funded by the Elton John Foundation.

Dr Kransdorff said at the time:

“Using the advice from the Doctors, it became our mission to create an affordable single food portion that delivered many important nutrients found in a healthy well-balanced diet. We well understood it is impossible for poor malnourished people to afford to eat a “well balanced diet”.

 “We recognized people were dying from opportunistic diseases like TB or pneumonia because of low nutritional status. This was a key learning as it highlighted the importance of a nutritional intervention.

Being a social entrepreneur  with access to some of the brightest minds in the world helped Dr Kransdorff to better understood the key technical challenges,  and he was able to develop an affordable food loaded with micro-nutrients branded as e’Pap.

The e’Pap journey led them away from the limited concept of ‘food security’ through ‘stomach-filling’ to a new focus called ‘nutrition security’. Kransdorff defined nutrition security as the basis of sustainable development – the nutrition economy that results from communities made up of “nutrient replete” physiological function human beings that are better able to find their own solutions to poverty and health challenges.

The nutrition crisis is nothing new; it has grown exponentially over the past 100 years as the food chain became compromised due to modern agriculture and food processing practices.

“Part solutions in current interventions use billions of dollars to address the problem fail to create sustainable change.  A nutrient replete person is our goal.” said Dr Kransdorff.

Current commercial farming practices produce an excess of macro stomach-filling nutrients but leaves the body dysfunctional because of “hidden hunger” (micro nutrient deficiencies). If the body’s daily requirements of micro nutrients are not met it results in an accumulative deficit that result in the body becoming more malnourished daily.

Nutrient content in fruit and vegetables has dropped up to 76% over the past 50 years in the USA and Europe. Proof that modern intensive agriculture practices create the problem. The result is a global crisis of mass starvation of micro-nutrients in communities both rich and poor.

e’Pap uses minerals and vitamins that the body is able to easily absorb. Each e’Pap portion has the right amount of these minerals and vitamins to give the body all the energy it needs for the day.

Such is the success of e’Pap in improving nutrition, energy and productivity for those who consume it, that up to two million servings a month of e’Pap are distributed in Africa.

Dr Kransdorff, fondly known as Zvishavane in the land of his birth, Zimbabwe,  is known as a humanitarian, a visionary and a lobbyist for affordable, effective, bio-available nutrition that results in nutrient repleteness. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate at UKZN’s College of Health Sciences Graduation ceremony in January 2017.

Kransdorff is an Ashoka Fellow and internationally recognised for his work by Ashoka, a Washington-based NGO focused on supporting social entrepreneurs who have developed important solutions to address poverty and health issues in communities.

He holds a BSC degree with majors in Chemistry and Geology and a BSC Honors in Chemistry from the former University of Natal (1969). In the field of nutrition he has written and researched on micronutrients and their bio-efficacy and works closely with international experts in the field.

Ingredients

e’Pap is a pre-cooked porridge powder made from whole grain maize and soya bean, with vitamins and minerals added in a form that the body can absorb and use.

e’Pap contains: Maize, Soya (allergen), Sugar, Salt, Flavoring, Lecithin, Nucleotides, TBHQ (Anti-oxidant), Stevia (non-nutritive natural sweetener), minerals and vitamins.

No added synthetic sweeteners, no artificial colorants and no preservatives are used. Free of wheat gluten and lactose.

The main ingredients in e’Pap–wholegrain maize and soybean–are rich in natural nutrients such as Omega fatty acids. The added minerals and vitamins that fortify e’Pap are used to maximise biological absorption to the body. Additives are sourced from the leading international nutritional technology companies.

Easy-to-Use

The e’Pap porridge powder is simply mixed with clean cool or warm water and the meal is ready.

No cooking means no electricity, firewood or other fuel is required.
Alternatively the porridge powder can be mixed with milk, fermented milk, fruit juice or made into a e’Smoothie health drink with fruit, yoghurt, honey, nuts, etc. according to taste

Dry powder can be sprinkled over other foods. Some children eat e’Pap as a sweet treat, simply by dipping a finger!

Econocom Foods has established and maintains official certification and registration of the e’Pap product range by public health authorities, and fully complies with South African and international standards and regulations in the food industry.
SGS is the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company.

Where to find e’Pap in your Country

Click on THIS LINK to find out where you can obtain e’Pap

Tomorrow, on Foodie Friday, we will bring you some easy recipes for e’Pap Porridge, e’Pap Sandwiches, e’Pap Smoothies, e’Pap Flapjacks!

 

Please note that the Little Fighters Cancer Trust has no links to e’Pap,  Econocom Foods or the Kransdorff’s – we are merely, as is our wont, providing you with all information we feel may be pertinent to your Child with Cancer’s health.