Submit your Article

In Nepal, the phase for people to recognize and appreciate avocado as a healthy, nutrient-dense fruit goes back over a decade, and its popularity gradually took on among fruit enthusiasts. Today, the consumption of avocado has almost become a household essential, especially in big cities like Kathmandu, Pokhara, and others, during its peak harvesting season. 

It has even appealed to Nepali farmers for its potential value as a cash crop and a substantial income resource. Dhankuta, in eastern Nepal, is known for extensive farming of avocados and has even bagged the title of avocado capital, Koshi Province.

Native to Mexico, the pear-shaped avocado with coarse rind was named amusingly the ‘alligator pear.’ It’s also called butter fruit in Europe and America for its creamy pulp. This pit-bearing fruit got its name, avocado, worldwide in 1915 when Californian farmers initiated its farming. Today, although the fruit is grown globally, Mexico stands as the largest avocado producer in the world. 

Among many varieties, the Hass and Fuerte are widely preferred by avocado lovers, the former blackish and the other with a green shade and thinner skin. Of the two, the coarse-skinned Hass is favored more than its cousin, the Fuerto, for its soft creamy pulp and smaller pit.

Incredible as it may sound, avocados pack nearly 20 vitamins plus minerals, and they are the only fruit that contains a substantial amount of monounsaturated fatty acids. 

As little as half an average-sized avocado packs almost 140 calories and 15 grams of fat—75 percent of the total fat is healthy monounsaturated. It is cholesterol and sodium-free, rich in fiber, and packed with folates and vitamin E. Likewise, dense in potassium, one-half of the avocado contains more potassium than a medium banana—487 mg against 422 mg, respectively. Health food buffs have touted it as a ‘Superfood.’ 

Now, the health benefits of avocado appear staggering if introduced into our meal plan. Let’s consider looking into the health rewards of the nutrient-dense fruit.

Supports the cholesterol level

Our body comprises two kinds of cholesterol: the ‘good,’ called HDL (high-density lipoprotein), and the ‘bad,’ called LDL (low-density lipoprotein). A severe hike in LDL can lead to life-threatening outcomes, running the risk of heart disease and stroke. The HDL absorbs cholesterol in the blood and transfers it to the liver to flush it out from the body.

Science backs it that avocados are loaded with oleic acid (omega-9 fatty acid) and the richest source of cholesterol-lowering nutrients called Phytosterols, boosting the healthy HDL and cutting down on the culprits, the LDL and the triglycerides. 

Research published by the American Heart Association maintained that daily intake of a single avocado can lower the LDL level. Clinical studies on individuals with high cholesterol levels furnished compelling evidence for this finding with remarkable results. Following a week-long diet of avocado, the analysis led to a 22 percent drop in the LDL and triglycerides while the HDL elevated by 11 percent.

The significant risk factors for cardiovascular disease are bad cholesterol and saturated fat. Again, rich in monounsaturated fat, folate, fiber, potassium, and a plant compound, beta-sitosterol, avocados help keep the cholesterol level in check. 

People with diabetes are supposed to tread a fine line between healthy meals and sugar spikes. Given that, the high-fat content in avocados might sound contradictory, inviting a bad rap. 

A medium-sized avocado contains about 22 grams of fat (15 grams monounsaturated, 4 grams polyunsaturated, 3 grams saturated). Thus, avocados with loads of ‘good fats,’ with an insignificant amount of saturated fat, still offer health benefits for diabetes patients.

Clinical observation has testified that a diet high in monounsaturated fat supports insulin sensitivity and advances the GLUT4 glucose in the cells.

Low in sugar content and dense in dietary fiber, soluble and insoluble, the consumption of avocado enhances glycemic management and stalls blood sugar spikes. It also helps spur better digestion and may reverse insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes.

Keeps the kidneys safe

Maintaining a healthy heart is crucial, as is the delicate care and safeguarding of our kidneys lest they run high risks of harm with critical results. A rich source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, a single avocado packs over 480mg of potassium, which nourishes the kidneys. Specialists maintain the intake of a moderate amount of avocado in their diet, even helping chronic kidney patients in a critical stage.

Even tea made from avocado leaves works as a kidney cleanser, flushing wastes and toxins from the kidneys.

Keeps our eyes healthy

Avocados are rich in vitamin E and compounds like lutein, zeaxanthin, and carotenes. Research studies maintain that it supports eye health. With antioxidant properties, they also assist in fighting off eye diseases that come of age, such as macular degeneration and even cataracts.

Incorporating avocado into your meal plan helps keep your eyes healthy. It is rich in compounds called lutein and zeaxanthin (belonging to the carotenoid family). They maintain your eye health with antioxidant properties and fight off eye diseases that come of age, such as macular degeneration and even cataracts. 

Nourishes the skin

Besides, ladies also try a thin slice of avocado peel or a fruit paste mixed with almond oil under the eyes, thought to remedy dark blotches. For the oil content in the peel, too, rubbing the peel on dry skin of the face works wonders, they claim. Women also use the creamy paste of the fruit as a DIY face mask to hydrate and moisturize the skin. It is supposed to make the face skin soft and silky.

Some tips

When buying avocados, widely available in Kathmandu fruit stalls, go for the firm ones, discarding those with soft, dark, sunken spots or bruises. You can store them in the refrigerator for ripening, which takes four to seven days. If you wish to ripen them earlier, stow them in a paperback in your pantry; that takes less time to ripen. 

Like all other fruits, avocados are eaten raw. The pulp mashed into a fine paste makes a superb spread, substituting butter for bread, sandwiches, and rotis. It works wonders as a salad accompaniment. Or slice it and eat it by scooping its creamy fruit.  

Or, if your taste buds crave a seasoned sauce or spread, mash the fruit, add lime juice, and season it with a pinch of salt and cilantro. Voila, you have blended it into an incredibly popular Mexican condiment. 

Small wonder, the fantastic avocado has won over the hearts of people across the globe today. The bottom line? The splendid nutritious fruit worth its weight in gold is, by all counts, a ‘Superfood!’ Indeed!

References: hsph.harvard.edu/nutrition source; cdc.gov; medicalnewstoday; healthline.com; bbcgoodfood.com; nutritiofacts.org; breathewellbeing.in; avo.com.np.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the above text are solely research-based, not medical advice; the author solicits readers’ discretion and cross-references. 

[email protected]

From the prehistoric epoch, our land has been home to some of the great minds, including sages and hermits with tremendous philosophical depth and ideology, sources of wisdom and knowledge throughout the world. Nepal has had personalities, who had attained dimensions beyond physical, in the genres of ‘tantra’, ‘mantra’ and ‘yantra’. 

While the half hemisphere of this living planet was living in the stone age, knowledge based on profound experience of the cosmos was flowing in Nepal. 

This is the land of the Vedas, of the Buddhas including Shakyamuni Buddha, this is where Kapilmuni propounded the Sankhya philosophy and Falgunanda instituted Kirant religion. While this rich and vibrant culture and tradition is still going on, the rulers of this country have failed to recognize and tap Nepal’s tremendous human potential.

During the Rana regime, Gehendra Shamsher Rana, considered the first scientist of modern Nepal, developed Nepal's first mini-hydropower plant, water-powered rice pounding mill, wind-powered water pump and leather refinery, among others. 

Gehendra Shamsher also made guns, cannons and a car. Despite these contributions toward the country, the then ruler Chandra Sumsher Rana demotivated this scientist and had him exiled. Finally he died in mysterious circumstances at a young age of 35.

There was another innovator in Nepal, Achyutananda,  also known as Viman Pandit. He built a steam-powered car that could carry up to two people after 20 years of efforts, playwright Balkrishna Sama mentions in his book titled ‘Mero Kabitako Aaradhana’.

Achyutananda is also said to have built a model aircraft with features including a kerosene-powered engine and a bamboo frame covered with waterproof wax cloth. He took off at Pachali Ghat and landed at Kalmochan Ghat. But the aeroplane project ‘crashed’ as soon as the news of the successful test flight fell on Chandra Sumsher’s ears.

These projects were no mean feat in an era when Nepal was largely isolated from the rest of the world. 

Almost 25 years after Achyutananda’s passing, another researcher-cum-innovator-cum-social entrepreneur, Mahavir Pun, was born in Nepal. Pun built a local communication network using wireless technology to connect people in the Himalayan communities. 

But this innovator, a Ramon Magsaysay awardee, has also been suffering the Nepali state’s neglect toward his noble cause. Despite promises to fund his brainchild, National Innovation Center, no help is forthcoming from the state, forcing Pun to auction his international awards to keep the center afloat.

The Takila mountain in Bhutan features a 155-feet-tall statue of Guru Padmasambhava, the first of its kind in the world. The place is expected to become a hugely popular tourist destination, bringing prosperity to local communities. 

Who is behind this magnificent project? A Nepali team under Rajkumar Shakya, a prominent sculptor, who has taken the traditional Newari repousse metalwork to the next level. His works can also be found in Japan, South Korea, France, Italy and the United States. 

After six years of hard work, a team of six sculptors under Manjul Miteri, a sculptor from east Nepal, have carved out a 65-feet-tall sculpture of Gautam Buddha on a cliff in Kyushu (Japan), considered the biggest sculpture of the century on a single solid rock mountain. 

Laxman Shrestha, a self-taught expressive artist from Nepalgunj, participated in the 17th and 18th Asian Art Biennale in Bangladesh, with his abstract paintings entitled ‘Quake’ and ‘Starving Moon’. The Mumbai-based Gallery 7 has bought his works. 

Shrestha is the creator of ‘Khoj’, a series of graffiti that used to be on display in Kathmandu with social messages. Instead of getting support from the state, he got arrested twice. 

For a month, 41 artworks of 13 artists are on display at Drexel’s Pearlstein Gallery in Philadelphia, the first exhibition of contemporary Nepali artists in the United States. 

The exhibition features the works of Shiva Kumar Sharma, an impressionist artist from Dolakha based in Kathmandu, among others. 

His first exhibition was held in Darjeeling in 1982 when he was 14, followed by a solo exhibition in 1991 at Nepali Girls Dioses Center in Darjeeling. Sharma has been spearheading a ‘Save trees movement’ since 2000 and participating in popular group exhibitions. 

These are but some of the representative cases showing the Nepali state not even bothering to give some of its exceptional minds even a pat on the back for doing Nepal and the Nepalis proud.  

Our economy is not in the best of shapes as relevant indicators suggest. 

According to the macroeconomic report of ADB, the GDP growth rate was 1.9 percent in 2023, which is lower than the average growth rate of the current decade. Agriculture and manufacturing sectors are going from bad to worse, a far cry from the times when both sectors were booming. In 2023, the growth rate of the agriculture and the manufacturing sector was 2.7 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

The country is importing food and grains to meet a growing demand, in urban areas as well as in villages. This points at a large scope for growing crops for consumption in villages, mainly in the hills where farmlands have been lying barren for decades. Reviving the farm sector will require structural transformation through the use of modern methods, including enough investment and incentives.

Despite deepening dependencies, a mid-term evaluation of the budget and monetary policy for the fiscal year 2023-24 shows economic indicators on a positive trend. Among others, Nepal has reasonably healthy foreign currency reserves, providing some relief to the government. 

There will surely be differing views vis-a-vis comfortable forex reserves, but I think it will have stronger negative effects than positive ones. In all likelihood, excess forex reserves will raise both liquid and total debt, pull interest rates down, cause a decline in consumption and move labor to tradable sectors from non-tradable ones.

In this context, it will be relevant to put forth some of the findings of the fourth living standard survey. 

Per the survey, the last 12 years have seen a meager reduction in poverty. 

Estimated on the basis of threshold per capita per year income of Rs 19,261, a quarter of the population (25 percent) was under deprivation in 2011. On the contrary, the poverty rate is being calculated on the basis of the threshold per capita income of Rs 72,908 per year in 2023. This level of income was considered as the minimum income required to fulfill basic needs of the people such as food and non-food items. On the basis of this threshold income, the poverty rate has come down to 20 percent, a  paltry 0.16 percent reduction in 12 years. 

Per the survey, Far-Western and Gandaki provinces have the highest (34.16 percent) and lowest (11.88 percent) poverty rates, respectively. Also, poverty runs deeper in rural areas than in urban areas. The poverty rate in rural areas is 24.66 percent against 18.34 percent in urban areas, according to the findings of the survey. These data stress the need for serious efforts to reduce poverty, which is pervasive and deeply-rooted.

Notably, there is a significant change in consumption expenditures between the third and fourth living standard surveys.The average expenditure on consumption of nonfood and food items was 38 percent and 62 percent, respectively in the third survey. It stands at 47 percent for nonfood items and 53 percent for food items in the fourth survey, showing that people have increased consumption expenditure on nonfood items compared to food items over 12 years. The household consumption expenditure as percentage of GDP in 2023 was 88.2 percent while the same was 85 percent  in 2011, an increase of 3.7 percent. It reveals that Nepal has consumed all of its income rather than making long-run investments for achieving sustainable development goals.

In 2011, remittance inflow stood at $4.22bn while in 2023 it swelled to $9.3bn, marking an increase of a whopping 120 percent in 12 years. In 2011, remittance’s contribution to Nepal’s GDP was 19.54 percent, which soared to 22.7 percent (an increase of 16.1 percent) in 2023. During the 12-year reporting period, the poverty rate has come down to 20 percent from 25 percent. 

Apparently, remittance inflow is behind a marginal reduction in poverty and increased forex reserves. 

Without a doubt, a constant inflow of remittances over the past 2-3 decades has been keeping the Nepali economy afloat.

Over the past two decades, the world has made remarkable progress in the fight against tuberculosis (TB). However, TB is still a serious challenge from a global health and development perspective.  According to WHO, more than 10m people continue to fall ill with TB every year. More importantly, a heavy burden of TB is on poor, vulnerable and socially marginalized populations.

In this context, the strategic interventions primarily focus on a unified response to end all the sufferings by addressing social determinants of TB. However, in many low-income countries, there are still inadequate policies and strategies to support implementation of universal health coverage, social protection, and regulatory frameworks to prevent and end TB.

Nepal has set the goal to end TB by 2035. The first-ever prevalence survey in 2018-19 shows that TB incidence and prevalence in Nepal are 245 and 416 per 100,000 people, respectively with a majority of TB patients from productive age groups. Interestingly, the prevalence among men is more than in women. Considering this reality, Nepal’s strategic plan to end TB (2020/21-2025/26) offers fresh hopes to many TB patients in terms of an easy access to timely diagnosis, treatment, prevention and care.  

An ambitious plan

By 2025, the ambitious strategy aims to significantly increase treatment coverage, success rate, uptake of new diagnostics and new drugs, and reduce catastrophic costs. The strategic priorities primarily include integrated patient-centered care, treatment and prevention, multi-sector engagement, and research for creating synergies for a unified response. Putting patients at the heart of the delivery, the strategy calls for consistent actions to ensure early detection, treatment and prevention for all TB patients.

A recent review of the strategic plan to end TB suggests that there are significant gaps in strengthening prevention and treatment services, community engagement, multi-sectoral coordination and accountability in the federal context. While social protection services for improved service delivery are critically needed, the rollout of new tools and innovative digital technologies are crucial for an effective TB response. This will help ensure treatment for all people with TB, including the drug-resistant strain.

A priority agenda

Engaging the private sector is a priority agenda in TB response. However, there are limited interventions to strengthen implementation of the public-private partnership strategies at all levels. Experiences from Bangladesh, India and Myanmar suggest that non-governmental organizations can play a critical role in providing essential TB services at the community level.

Effective implementation of the strategic plan is crucial at the local level. Because of inadequately-trained human resources for TB services, it is a challenging task for local governments to provide quality TB services. Therefore, concerted efforts are needed to ensure supportive supervision, periodic review, monitoring and evaluation, and timely feedback mechanism for actions at the local level.   

Despite persistent challenges of ensuring human and financial resources, Nepal has implemented a TB-free initiative at the local level for enhancing political leadership and ownership in TB response. The scaling up of the TB-free initiative is critical to strengthen local health policies and harness the power of multi-sectoral engagement for timely notification, diagnosis, prevention, treatment and care.

Inadequate efforts

However, existing efforts are inadequate to enhance the capacity of local governments in participatory and inclusive planning of a TB-free initiative. More focus is needed in the area of ensuring meaningful engagement of TB patients so that their representation, voiced experiences, and choices of prevention, treatment and care are realistically addressed at all levels. While TB is heavily influenced by socio-cultural, economic and health risk-related factors such as undernutrition, diabetes, HIV infection, and smoking, multi-sector actions are needed to combat the epidemic.   

More importantly, there are high-level global and regional events that have significantly reaffirmed commitments toward ending TB. In Sept 2023, the political declarations adopted at the UN High-level Meeting on TB include commitments toward universal access to TB services in both high and low-burden countries, with time-bound targets of reaching, with health services, at least 90 percent of people with or at risk of TB between 2023 and 2027. Moreover, there is a critical need to increase investments, and fast-track the development and availability of new tools to prevent, diagnose and provide treatment for TB.  

Undoubtedly, TB is largely a social disease that poses significant development challenges. There are growing needs to reduce human suffering and the socio-economic burden of TB by providing mental health and social protection services at the community level. Toward this end, anthropology of infectious diseases is instrumental in understanding interaction among socio-cultural, economic, political and biological variables in prevention and treatment of TB.

In this context, it is evident that TB is disproportionately common among disadvantaged populations. From an anthropological perspective, the relationship between poor health and poverty is a consequence of biosocial and biocultural factors. Still, stigma and discrimination associated with TB is another challenge to provide necessary care and support in the families. Therefore, apart from TB prevalence surveys, it is equally important to better understand people’s indigenous knowledge, attitude and health–seeking behavior to prevent and provide treatment for TB in the communities.

Urgent action necessary

To sum up, urgent actions are necessary to ensure universal access to TB prevention, treatment and care at all levels. The strategic priorities must focus on multisectoral actions to address wider determinants of the TB epidemic and effective management of the co-morbidities. In addition, there is an emerging need to strengthen health systems for ensuring essential TB services during disasters and pandemics such as Covid-19. 

The author is a health policy analyst