Tiny fish powers Gaza bodybuilders
After a bodybuilder in Gaza City started searching for an affordable protein-rich diet, he found the answer in UNRWA's standard food aid packages.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Mohammad Zaino, an amateur bodybuilder from Rafah, has found a cheap alternative to the high-protein diet he needed but could hardly afford: the canned sardines the UN Works and Relief Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) distributes as food aid to poor families.
At 1.79 meters (5 feet 10 inches) and 58 kilos (128 pounds), Zaino’s gauntness was often a joke among his friends. So he started bodybuilding two years ago, only to discover that bulking up required a high-protein diet.
Zaino, like other athletes living with Gaza's poverty and soaring unemployment, found it impossible to afford a diet rich in red meat and fish. Then he discovered the protein he needed in the food boxes his family received from UNRWA: sardines.
A hundred grams of minced raw beef contain 17 grams of protein, while 100 grams of sardines contain 25 grams of protein. One kilogram of beef in the Gaza Strip costs around 50 shekels ($14), while UNRWA distributes the canned sardines for free.
