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1.
Nutrients ; 15(14)2023 Jul 21.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37513665

ABSTRACT

Precision nutrition involves several data collection methods and tools that aim to better inform nutritional recommendations and improve dietary intake, nutritional status, and health outcomes. While the benefits of collecting precise data and designing well-informed interventions are vast, it is presently unclear whether precision nutrition is a relevant approach for tackling nutrition challenges facing populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), considering infrastructure, affordability, and accessibility of approaches. The Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley (SFNV) Precision Nutrition for LMIC project working group assessed the relevance of precision nutrition for LMIC by first conducting an expert opinion survey and then hosting a workshop with nutrition leaders who live or work in LMIC. The experts were interviewed to discuss four topics: nutritional problems, current solutions, precision nutrition, and collaboration. Furthermore, the SFNV Precision Nutrition for LMIC Virtual Workshop gathered a wider group of nutrition leaders to further discuss precision nutrition relevance and opportunities. Our study revealed that precision public health nutrition, which has a clear focus on the stratification of at-risk groups, may offer relevant support for nutrition and health issues in LMIC. However, funding, affordability, resources, awareness, training, suitable tools, and safety are essential prerequisites for implementation and to equitably address nutrition challenges in low-resource communities.


Subject(s)
Nutrition Disorders , Nutrition Therapy , Humans , Developing Countries , Expert Testimony , Nutritional Status
2.
Front Public Health ; 11: 1081535, 2023.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36817895

ABSTRACT

Background: Secondary cities tend to be better linked with local food systems than primate cities, acting as important platforms to trade agricultural produce with rural surrounding. COVID-19, conflicts and climate change continue to expose inefficiencies in food systems and have further exacerbated malnutrition, calling for substantial food systems transformations. However, tackling current food systems' challenges requires new approaches to ensure food and nutrition security. Nutritious and agroecologically produced food offer the potential to transform food systems by improving diets and alleviating pressure on the environment, as well as by creating jobs and reducing poverty. This paper describes the design of a project by a Swiss public-private consortium to improve food and nutrition security and to reduce poverty in city ecosystems in six secondary cities in Bangladesh, Kenya and Rwanda through governance/policy and supply and demand side interventions. Methods: The Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE) project promotes well-balanced nutrition for city populations through interdisciplinary agricultural, food, and health sector collaborations along city-specific value chains. Adopting a transdiciplinary systems approach, the main interventions of NICE are (i) advocacy and policy dialogue, (ii) building of decentralized institutional capacity in multi-sectoral collaborations, (iii) support of data-driven planning, coordination and resource mobilization, (iv) anchoring of innovations and new approaches in city-level partnerships, (v) capacity building in the agricultural, retail, health and education sectors, as well as (vi) evidence generation from putting policies into practice at the local level. NICE is coordinated by in-country partners and local offices of the Swiss public-private consortium partners. Discussion: The NICE project seeks to contribute to urban food system resilience and enhanced sustainable nutrition for city populations by (A) strengthening urban governance structures involving key stakeholders including women and youth, (B) generating income for producers along the supply chain, (C) triggering change in producers' and consumers' behavior such that nutritious and agroecologically produced foods are both in demand as well as available and affordable in urban markets, and (D) allowing a scale up of successful approaches to other national and international cities and city networks.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Ecosystem , Female , Humans , Rwanda , Kenya , Bangladesh
3.
Nutrients ; 14(18)2022 Sep 16.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36145210

ABSTRACT

The need for a profound food system transformation has never been greater. The growing burden of malnutrition has become the new normal, with two billion people who are overweight, over 140 million children under five who are stunted and over two billion people affected by hidden hunger. Food fortification has been recognized as a cost-effective strategy to address micronutrient deficiencies. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a strategic role in the food supply chain in low- and middle-income countries, accounting for over 80% of food sales. It is therefore critical to create an enabling environment to facilitate SMEs' involvement in food fortification practices as a potential solution to tackle all forms of malnutrition. This review highlights SMEs' relevance as agents of change in the food system through food fortification practices and their indirect yet key role in producing nutritious, tasty and affordable foods. It discusses their challenges (e.g., access to long-term finance, sustainable technical assistance, limited capacity), presents solutions and discusses how different actors can help SMEs to overcome these challenges. Furthermore, it presents a relevant public-private partnership case study to demonstrate how SMEs can address the growing burden of malnutrition through food fortification practices, nutrient profiling schemes and demand generation.


Subject(s)
Food, Fortified , Malnutrition , Child , Food Supply , Humans , Hunger , Malnutrition/epidemiology , Malnutrition/prevention & control , Micronutrients
4.
Nutrients ; 14(10)2022 May 10.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35631141

ABSTRACT

Climate change, rapid urbanization, war, and economic recession are key drivers of the current food systems' disruption, which has been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. Local, regional, and global food systems are unable to provide consumers with nutritious and affordable diets. Suboptimal diets exacerbate the triple burden of malnutrition, with micronutrient deficiencies affecting more than two billion people, two billion people suffering from overweight, and more than 140 million children who are stunted. The unaffordability of nutritious diets represents an obstacle for many, especially in low- and middle-income countries where healthy diets are five times more expensive than starchy staple diets. Food system transformations are urgently required to provide consumers with more affordable and nutritious diets that are capable of meeting social and environmental challenges. In this review, we underline the critical role of innovation within the food system transformation discourse. We aim to define principles for implementing evidence-based and long-term food system innovations that are economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable and, above all, aimed at improving diets and public health. We begin by defining and describing the role of innovation in the transformation of food systems and uncover the major barriers to implementing these innovations. Lastly, we explore case studies that demonstrate successful innovations for healthier diets.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Malnutrition , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/prevention & control , Child , Climate Change , Diet , Diet, Healthy , Humans
5.
Nat Food ; 3(12): 990-996, 2022 12.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37118296

ABSTRACT

The principles of agroecology do not explicitly state a link with nutrition. Yet, we argue that among them, input reduction, biodiversity, economic diversification, social values and diets, fairness, connectivity and participation are directly linked to nutrition. Nutrition can serve as a critical outcome and driver of agroecological practices and can drive transformative change across the food system.

6.
Nutrients ; 13(4)2021 Mar 29.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33805305

ABSTRACT

Deficiencies in one or more micronutrients such as iron, zinc, and vitamin A are widespread in low- and middle-income countries and compromise the physical and cognitive capacity of millions of people. Food fortification is a cost-effective strategy with demonstrated health, economic and social benefits. Despite ongoing debates globally and in some countries regarding the performance and safety of food fortification, the practice offers significant benefits across each of the main vehicles for food fortification (large-scale food fortification, biofortification and point-of-use or home fortification) ranging from reducing the prevalence of nutritional deficiencies and economic benefits to societies and economies. Using Sight and Life's global and national experiences in implementing food fortification efforts, we demonstrate how different programs in LMICs have successfully addressed challenges with food fortification and in doing so, find that these efforts are most successful when partnerships are formed that include the public and private sector as well as other parties that can provide support in key areas such as advocacy, management, capacity building, implementation and regulatory monitoring.


Subject(s)
Developing Countries , Food, Fortified , Nutrition Policy , Humans , Micronutrients
7.
Adv Nutr ; 12(3): 609-620, 2021 06 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33724302

ABSTRACT

Nutrient profiling (NP) models aim to assess the nutritional quality of individual foods, according to their energy content and nutrient composition. NP models, initially created to prevent obesity in high-income countries, have tended to penalize dietary energy by giving lower ratings to foods containing excessive calories, fat, sugar, and salt. Energy-driven NP models may need to be reconceptualized for use in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) where hunger, undernutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies continue to be issues of public health concern. Consistent with the position of the WHO that the purpose of NP methods is to address an identified public health problem, NP models intended for use in LMIC ought to address inadequate intakes of vitamin A, B vitamins, folate, calcium, iron, iodine, and zinc and the frequent lack of high-quality protein. Those models of nutrient density that feature beneficial nutrients (high-quality protein, vitamins, minerals, and trace elements) may be better suited to LMIC needs than are some current NP models that are wholly based around nutrients to limit. NP models intended for LMIC and global use will also need to take food fortification into account. The challenge for LMIC public health agencies is how to balance the future risk of excess "empty" calories against the continuing danger of inadequate nutrients and micronutrient deficiencies that persist at the population level.


Subject(s)
Food, Fortified , Nutrients , Humans , Nutritive Value , Vitamin A , Vitamins
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