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Nepal reported 43 new Covid-19 cases and one death on Thursday. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 301 swab samples were tested in the last 24 hours, of which 43 tested positive. The Ministry said that 50 infected people recovered from the disease. As of today, there are 202 active cases in the country.  

Newly appointed ministers took oath of office and secrecy on Thursday. President Ram Chandra Paudel administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly appointed ministers amidst a program organized in Sheetal Niwas this afternoon. Dhan Raj Gurung was appointed as the Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Mohan Bahadur Basnet as Minister for Health and Population and Dig Bahadur Limbu as Minister for Youth and Sports. President Paudel appointed the trio as ministers on the recommendation of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. All the three newly appointed ministers are the lawmakers elected from the Nepali Congress.  

Gandaki Province Chief Minister Surendra Raj Pandey secured a vote of confidence in the Province Assembly on Thursday. He received 35 votes while 22 voted against him. The UML lawmakers cast their votes against Pandey. Two lawmakers of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party remained neutral. Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party leader Pandey was appointed as the chief minister on April 27. Earlier, the then chief minister CPN-UML Parliamentary Party leader Khagraj Adhikari failed to secure a vote of confidence on April 22.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli held a meeting on Thursday. During the meeting took place at the Singha Durbar-based Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the two discussed contemporary political issues. Talking briefly with journalists after the meeting, the Prime Minister said that the meeting dwelt on contemporary political issues, government’s upcoming policies and programs and the budget. Similarly, Oli said that those involved in the fake Bhutanese refugees’ case should be brought under the purview of law. Earlier on Wednesday, an arrest warrant was issued against former Energy Minister and CPN-UML Secretary Top Bahadur Rayamajhi for his alleged involvement in the case.  

A tremor was felt at Bajura today. According to the National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Center, the quake measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale with its epicenter of Bichhiya was recorded at 1:17 pm today. Prior to this, the district in the Sudurpaschim Province recorded three tremors with the epicenter at Dahakot on April 28.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 12.73 points to close at 1, 869.73 points on Thursday. Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 2.07 points to close at 357. 91 points. A total of 2,533,714-unit shares of 276 companies were traded for Rs 732 billion. Meanwhile, NIBL Growth Fund was the top gainer today, with its price surging by 9. 86 percent. Likewise, NMB Debenture was the top loser as its price fell by 5.85 percent. At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 72 trillion.

In the 16th century, maize entered the Indian Subcontinent with the Portuguese, and it became a staple grain for us. Along with maize, the Portuguese brought corn from South America to South Asia, but they failed to introduce us to the technology to make corn flour. Without that technology our corn flatbreads are hard and thus not easy to eat. If you are familiar with corn tacos from the Americas, it’s soft and flexible like our flatbreads made from wheat flour. The technology we are missing is called ‘nixtamalization’.

Some context

Rice, maize, and wheat are important crops for food security in Nepal. Paddy and wheat are grown in plains of Tarai, valleys, and irrigated lands in the mountains while maize is cultivated in mid-hills of the country. Maize is one of the major crops of Nepal. Maize cultivation is an important farm cultivation among Nepali farmers. Basically, in the rural hills of Nepal like Okhaldhunga, it dominates any other type of crop production. The United States is the largest producer of corn in the world followed by China, Brazil and Argentina. Eight countries and four states in the US produce over one billion bushels of corn. Most scientists agree that corn and maize originated in central Mexico and was domesticated 7000 to 9000 years ago from a wild grass plant called teosinte. Teosinte looked nothing like modern maize, in particular due smaller, fewer and more spaced-out kernels, each surrounded by a tough casing. Teosinte still grows in Mexico today.

Native Americans brought corn up the Mississippi River to North America. The earliest corn plant was very small, but after periods of breeding by Native Americans, pilgrims, and scientists, the corn plant has changed into the corn that we know of today. The Portuguese introduced it to India in the 16th century, and then it came to Nepal. When corn came to India, an important step of corn flour production didn’t arrive. It was lost on the way. So, corn delicacies and food varieties made here aren’t soft or chewy enough. South Asian corn flatbreads break easily and are difficult to digest and chew. Children and old people can’t have these rotis easily. This is because the outer shell of corn is made of cellulose, an insoluble fiber, which human bodies are unable to digest, unless broken down before entering the digestive system. However, chewing kernels for longer makes it easier for the body to access the additional nutrients from the cellulose walls, adding to its nutritional value. This can be made simpler by a process called nixtamalization which normally makes cornbread and rotis soft instead of brittle. With the introduction of this process, we can make soft corn rotis and even stuff them or make rolls with them.

What is nixtamalization?

Nixtamalization is a process involving cooking and soaking dried corn kernels with calcium hydroxide (slaked lime) or another alkali. In it, there is preparation of maize (corn), or other grain where the corn is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually lime water but sometimes in wood ash, which is then washed and hulled. This removes much of the grain’s bran which significantly increases the availability of niacin in the corn. It also delivers other nutritional benefits. The detail that fascinates me is that nixtamalization of corn was invented by Meso-Americans thousands of years ago. I wonder how they ever figured out that they needed to cook the corn with cal, as lime is called in Spanish. Corn flour made by this process has many health benefits, including the fact that it’s naturally gluten free. Flour made from corn is also higher in fiber, vitamin A, zinc and iron than wheat flour. The combination of fiber and carbohydrates makes it a bit more filling as well. It’s also a good thing gastronomically as nixtamalization changes the flavor of corn in amazing ways and, by removing the bran, makes it much easier to grind and make dough. This was especially useful in ancient times when this was all done by hand. The result is a corn dough, called ‘masa’ in Spanish, that’s responsible for much of the Mexican food we love today, from tacos to tamales, quesadillas to sopes, and gorditas to atoles.

Nixtamalization in Nepal

In 2021, maize imports for Nepal totalled to $158,273. The import is growing at an average annual rate of 331.27 percent. I believe the process of nixtamalization can bring a food revolution in Nepal. Through nixtamalization, we can cook corn with wood ash (kharani) until it goes soft. This means all husk will be removed and drained. We could use baking soda as the alkaline material. This could be done by filling a large pot with a ratio of two parts water for every one part of dried corn. We can also sprinkle in baking soda at a rate of two tablespoons for every one quart of dried corn. This is a traditional and standard household process in South America and Mexico for generations. We could use this technique to make dough pliable. The bread made with such dough will be very soft, nutritious, healthy, and easy to digest.

The author is a London-based Nepali R&D chef  

A popular student hangout spot in Kathmandu, XYZ restaurant, is seeing an increase in the number of young customers, who frequent the place to smoke hookah. Among them is Subhasish (name changed), 24, a college student who visits the restaurant regularly to enjoy the ambiance and the company of his friend Ananta (name changed), 25, while smoking hookah. For Subhasish and Ananta, smoking hookah is a way to escape from the stress and pressures of college life. They find the experience calming and relaxing, and enjoy the flavors and aromas of different tobacco blends at the restaurant. Over time, Subhasish and his companion find themselves increasingly dependent on hookah to cope with stress and anxiety, and the habit begins to take a toll on their physical health. They experience respiratory problems and coughing, and are unable to quit even when they try. This is not just the story of the two but of a huge number of youths who have become addicted to tobacco products like hookah. What is a matter of serious concern for the youths, parents and law enforcement is that Nepal’s Tobacco Products (Control and Regulatory) Act (2011) has no provision on controlling the import, production and distribution of such products. A team from AMN’s No Tobacco Campaign interviewed some of the regular consumers and visitors of the XYZ restaurant, including students, teachers and corporate to get their perspectives on “hookah, vape and/or e –cigarettes”. Cool or poisonous? Romit (name changed), 23, says he enjoys vaping because his friends also consider it cool and trendy. “Everyone is doing it, so I wanted to give it a try,” he said. “I like different flavors and the fact that it doesn’t smell like cigarettes.” Shreya (name changed), 22, says she too enjoys hookah with friends because it is “a social activity”. “It’s something we can do together and try new flavors,” she said, describing it as a ‘fun thing to do.’ However, not all customers agreed with the two. Sudarshan (name changed), 26, was concerned about the potential health risks associated with hookah, vapes, and e-cigarettes. “I’ve heard that they can cause lung problems and other health issues,” he said. “I’m not sure it’s worth the risk.” Some customers appeared quite cautious about the addictive nature of these products, pointing that they had seen people ‘who can’t go a day without vaping’. Like them, an increasing number of people, including health experts, aware of health risks that these products pose, are raising awareness on the issue. The experts warn that products like e-cigarettes contain harmful chemicals and are addictive. Smoking hookah has been associated with increased risk of lung cancer, heart diseases and other health problems. Findings of a new research from the Nepal Development Research Institute (NDRI) also suggest that increase in hookah use may be behind a growing number of young people in Nepal who are using tobacco products—up from 11.4 percent of 15 to 24-year-olds in 2013 to over 15 percent in 2019. That in turn explains the growing epidemic of smoking-related deaths in Nepal. One in five deaths in the country is attributed to tobacco. Worryingly, the youths account for an increasing number of deaths, including the use of tobacco products, including hookah.   Don’t go after flavors Hookah is taxed at a much lower rate than cigarettes, meaning companies are incentivized to invest in promoting it and young people find it more affordable. It does not have to carry visible health warnings on its packaging, meaning many young people are under the mistaken impression that it won’t harm them. And the tobacco firms, of course, know all this. That’s why hookah is marketed as fun, colorful, and cool in a way that’s just not possible with the much more familiar danger of cigarettes. Young people are tempted by flavors, including watermelon, tropical fruit, caramel, chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. The way we handle hookah in this country is killing young people. The international evidence is clear that hookah can have serious and negative health impacts. In hookah smoke, at least 82 harmful substances and carcinogens have been found. Smoking tobacco with a water pipe for an hour emits the same amount of smoke as 100–200 cigarettes. Studies have shown that users can expose themselves to up to 1.7 times as much nicotine and up to nine times as much carbon monoxide in a normal hookah session as they would in a single cigarette. Hookah smokers are 2.2 times more likely than non-smokers to experience long-term cardiovascular consequences, and it has been shown that hookah smokers are more likely than non-smokers to develop oesophageal cancer. Smoking a hookah is associated with many of the same harmful health effects as smoking cigarettes, including heart disease, lung, bladder, and oral malignancies.   Time for urgent action It’s time to end this hookah epidemic and address the wider problem of increasing tobacco use in Nepal, particularly among the youths. NDRI, along with the Nepal Cancer Relief Society, are urging the government to take urgent action to protect the health of Nepal’s youth. They are asking the government to ensure that hookah products are treated with the same level of severity as other tobacco products through measures like these:

• Extending existing tobacco control regulations to explicitly apply to hookah. For example, requiring that hookah products carry health warnings and banning sales to minors.
• Introducing regulations that limit marketing tactics, which specifically target young people.
• Increasing tax on hookah products to help make hookah products less affordable to youth.

The upcoming budget is a perfect opportunity for the government to take a first step toward better protecting young people from the harms of tobacco. By increasing tobacco tax, the government can reduce the affordability of these dangerous products, and at the same time generate much-needed revenue. It is the responsibility of the government to protect our young from all forms of tobacco, including new products such as hookah. As the Constitution of Nepal, 2072 has stipulated the right to health as a fundamental right, federal, state and local governments should guarantee a healthier life for all the citizens. A nation can develop only if it has healthy citizens.