By Tahvi Frank
It seems like Lake Atitlán is teeming with life. From the flies that buzz around every table, to the lush vegetation, to the active volcano that sits across the lake from us (don’t worry, it’s not expected to explode anytime soon), it feels like everything here is vivacious. The tourists who stay in the hotels by the lake feel this energy as they lace up hiking boots or put on scuba gear to explore the beautiful area. Unfortunately, almost hidden from their eyes are the indigenous Mayan pueblos that lie not more than a mile uphill from the lake, which tell a different story of the liveliness of Lake Atitlán.
An interesting and unfortunate duality is visible upon entering the pueblo Santa Cruz la Laguna, the closest village to the lake and largest in the area. At first glance, the pueblo appears almost as vibrant as the tourist areas down by the lake. Friendly people greet us as we enter the village each morning. An exciting game of soccer is almost constantly being played by energetic children in the town square. Women wear beautiful, traditional clothing.
However, it doesn’t take long to uncover the distressing health outcomes in the area. Part of our research involves performing 24-hour dietary recalls with mothers who have children less than 5 years of age. To do this, we ask each mother a thorough series of questions of what their child ate and the quantity eaten in the past day. Many children have simple carbohydrate-heavy diets that lack adequate fruits and vegetables. It isn’t hard to understand why children have these diets after looking into any shop in the area; it seems as though every store specializes in chips and Pepsi products and sells almost no fresh produce.
After performing dietary recalls with each mother, we weigh and measure their children. The majority of the children we have worked with thus far are moderately or severely stunted, meaning they are two to three standard deviations below the average height for their age. Although we have only been performing our research for a week, this pattern of stunting is pretty alarming.
It’s difficult to see these unfortunate heath outcomes juxtaposed alongside a thriving lake. Our hope is that our research can help provide some insight into mothers’ choices for their children’s diets. Through looking deeper into children’s nutrition in Santa Cruz, we could potentially lay the groundwork for solutions that could help reduce stunting. And maybe, ultimately, the health outcomes in Santa Cruz will begin to mirror the liveliness of the lake.
