Dietary enhancement refers to adding nutrients to food for nutritional supplementation, helping address micronutrient deficiencies and combat malnutrition among populations.
At three time points between 0-, 90, and 120 min, glucose clearance was evaluated using three-way ANOVA to assess its effects of pH enhancement (both non-pH and ammonia treated), protein source, and diet fat content on male and female mice at zero, 90, and 120 min times points.
Micronutrient Deficiencies
Micronutrient deficiencies pose a serious challenge to social and economic development, leading to high health care costs, reduced learning capacity and productivity at work, as well as contributing to poverty among poor populations, particularly children.
Interventions designed to combat micronutrient malnutrition must be tailored specifically to country circumstances; in addition to diet change and food fortification strategies, supplementation and food fortification strategies can also help overcome deficiencies. Such interventions should aim at moving at-risk groups from severe nutritional deficiency through presumed inadequacies up to full sufficiency levels of micronutrients.
Sustainable diet improvement is the primary strategy to mitigate deficiency, with breastfeeding and food processing and preservation techniques that preserve micronutrients being key components. For severely deficient populations, short-term supplementation programs that support regular dietary improvements may also be cost-effective; in particular, in developing nations.
Micronutrient Inadequacies
Many factors contribute to micronutrient malnutrition, including poverty, limited availability and access of nutritious food sources and inadequate knowledge about optimal diet practices. Malnutrition has been associated with higher morbidity rates, impaired learning abilities and lower productivity rates; thus resulting in significant morbidity and mortality rates as well as decreased productivity rates.
Robust estimates of those suffering from micronutrient deficiencies are key for setting funding and program priorities, and for supporting food-based approaches. In this study, individual-level biomarker data for three core micronutrients (iron, zinc and vitamin A) collected in representative surveys since 2003 was utilized to calculate prevalence estimates globally and regionally of micronutrient deficiency.
Results show that 372 million preschool-aged children (with 95% uncertainty interval of 319-425) and 12 billion (10-14) non-pregnant women of reproductive age, globally, suffer from one or more core micronutrient deficiencies; most prevalently in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with lower prevalence in high income countries but still impacting daily lives through reduced productivity and vulnerability to illness.
Micronutrient Supplementation
As long as food availability and quality remain a challenge, dietary diversification and fortification will remain key tools for combatting micronutrient inadequacies. While such interventions are crucial, they take time to produce results, might not cover all major deficits (i.e. iron, zinc, vitamin A, iodine or folate deficiencies etc), as stated by WHO and FAO (2012).
Therefore, supplementation strategies must be included as part of nutrition programs tailored for vulnerable populations, particularly in terms of supplementing staple food with additional micronutrients or by offering tablets/powders of essential nutrients. Such efforts could involve the distribution of nutrient-rich foods, targeted fortification of staples or supplement tablets/powders containing selected micronutrients.
Nutrient supplements that have proven most successful at improving micronutrient deficiency-related outcomes have been those with antioxidant properties, including anthocyanins, folic acid, n-3 fatty acids, genistein and magnesium (Supplemental Appendix 1). Such antioxidant-rich supplements help improve multiple cardiovascular risk factors including blood pressure, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides; supplementation of infant formula or complementary foods with these micronutrients has also proven useful at reducing deficiency related morbidity or mortality (Supplemental Appendix 1).
Micronutrient Fortification
Over two billion people worldwide suffer from micronutrient malnutrition, commonly referred to as “hidden hunger.” This condition results from shortages in essential vitamins and minerals needed for growth and metabolism such as iron, vitamin A, iodine and zinc – these being essential elements in supporting life processes such as growth. Fortifying foods may increase micronutrient intake to address deficiencies.
Food fortification programs vary significantly and must be evaluated carefully, particularly in LMICs where multiple micronutrient deficiencies coexist. Studies indicate that fortification does increase serum micronutrient levels significantly; however, future programs must assess its direct impact on morbidity and mortality rates as well.
TechnoServe unveiled, at a public-private event on September 16, its Micronutrient Fortification Index (MFI) for Nigeria – an innovative new platform allowing food processors to publicly rank themselves and their peers for performance in fortifying staple foods such as wheat flour, edible oil, sugar and salt with micronutrients. The MFI was the result of TechnoServe’s 2018 Nigeria Food Processing and Leadership Forum convened by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation;
