A Lentil That Lames

By Awake! correspondent in India

THE young Indian farm laborer had nearly forgotten the sudden pains that jarred him from sleep a few weeks earlier. For several nights his calf muscles had tightened into hard lumps, and he suffered spasms lasting from 10 to 15 minutes. But this morning, as he awakens and gets to his feet, he suddenly falls to the ground. Within hours his legs begin to feel stiff and heavy, and his steps become jerky and awkward.

Little is the young man aware that he is suffering the early stages of a paralyzing disease called lathyrism. He would never suspect that his daily diet of a particular lentil, known here as pulse, was the cause. (Of course, other types of lentils are nourishing and healthy.)

A Poison in the Pulse The illness, affecting thousands in India, takes its name from a hardy legume known as Lathyrus sativus. Indians generally know it as khesari dal, but there are many other local names. It is commonly ground into flour and rolled out into rotis, a flat unleavened bread. Often it is boiled and eaten as porridge. Neither preparation, however, eliminates a potent toxin that affects the nervous system and brings on the incurable crippler, lathyrism.

Young males, with their normally bigger appetite, are especially susceptible to this disease. On the other hand, few women suffer from it because female hormones seem to offer some protection. Early symptoms of the disease include pain and muscle spasms. If the diet is altered at this point, the disease can be arrested. Otherwise, it will worsen until the victim’s heels do not properly rest on the ground when he takes his steps, and he will walk on his toes with bent knees and extended ankles. In its extreme form, the disease will hamper all efforts to walk, and the victim must crawl or move about by shifting his weight along with his hands.

When the disease gets to this stage, its effect is devastating. A once productive wage earner and family provider can be reduced to a social burden for the rest of his life. But why does this disease continue to cripple victims when its cause and prevention have been known for some 200 years?

Why So Widespread? Lathyrism is a socioeconomic disease. According to India’s National Institute of Nutrition, 75 percent of lathyrism sufferers are landless laborers, often in debt to the landlord. Instead of money wages, such workers have been paid with food grains, including Lathyrus pulse. The landowners use the pulse because it grows easily, and its stems and leaves can be fed to cattle. In times of shortage, workers receive only Lathyrus pulse.

Some find its sweet flavor enjoyable and get used to consuming it regularly. Others find they cannot sell or exchange the pulse and eat it to survive. Those who cannot obtain other foods eat large quantities of the paralyzing pulse. When two thirds or more of the daily diet is Lathyrus, an onset of the disease is likely.

Although many states have banned the sale of Lathyrus pulse and its use as wage payments, this lentil is not likely to disappear soon from the Indian diet. Nearly 2.5 million acres [1 million ha] of India’s crop area are still planted with Lathyrus. And there is nothing to prevent greedy merchants from mixing it with other grains and selling the product to unsuspecting buyers in urban areas.

Is There a Solution? Authorities believe that to combat the problem, intensive education about lathyrism and incentives for landowners to grow other crops are needed. For example, researchers have found that from 80 to 90 percent of the toxin can be removed by steeping the pulse in freshly boiled water for about two hours, followed by draining and washing in fresh water. The pulse can then be sun dried for later use.

Such knowledge and other administrative measures will help. But in all likelihood, lathyrism will remain in India until man’s greed can be eliminated and people everywhere learn to seek, not their own advantage, but that of others. For that we must look beyond the present unjust system to the promised righteous new world of God’s making.​—2 Peter 3:13.