Kwashiorkor is a different disease, resulting from protein deficiency without calorie deficiency. These babies have huge bellies because their livers are filled with fat—they’ve got nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). What caused the fatty liver? Cassava flour—a high-carbohydrate, low-fiber food, resulting in glycation, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, insulin resistance, poor membrane integrity, and inflammation (see Chapter 7). In other words, they have “developing world” metabolic syndrome. Well, guess what? We have instead “developed world” kwashiorkor.
