Survey data on income, food security, and dietary behavior among women and children from households of differing socio-economic status in urban and peri-urban areas of Nairobi, Kenya.

This article describes data collected to analyze consumer behaviors in vulnerable populations by examining key access constraints to nutritious foods among households of differing socio-economic status in urban and peri­urban areas of Nairobi, Kenya. The key variables studied include wealth status, food security, and dietary behavior indicators at individual and household level. Household food insecurity access scale (HFIAS), livelihood coping strategies (LCS), food expenditure share (FES), food consumption score (FCS), household dietary diversity score (HDDS), minimum dietary diversity-women(MDD-W), and child dietary diversity score (CDDS) indicators were used to measure food security. Household assets were used to develop an asset-based wealth index that grouped the study sample population into five wealth quantiles, while income levels were used to estimate FES. The hypothesis that guided the cross-sectional survey conducted to generate these data is that vulnerability to food insecurity and poverty are important drivers of food choice that influence household and individual dietary behavior. Data from this study was thus used to assess direction and strength of association between; household food insecurity, wealth status, women, children, and household dietary behavior in both urban and peri­urban populations sampled.

Iron Concentrations in Biofortified Beans and Nonbiofortified Marketplace Varieties in East Africa Are Similar.

BACKGROUND: The predominant bean iron (Fe) biofortification approach is to breed for high Fe concentration and assumes the average Fe concentration is 50 µg/g. This approach also assumes that a 40 µg/g increase is sustainable and Fe bioavailability will not decrease to negate the increase in Fe. OBJECTIVE: The overall objective was to determine if bean Fe biofortification via breeding for high Fe is producing beans with higher Fe concentration relative to nonbiofortified lines found in the East Africa marketplace. METHODS: Seventy-six marketplace samples (East Africa Marketplace Collection; EAMC), and 154 genotypes known to be representative of the marketplace were collected from breeders in the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (designated the East Africa Breeder Collection; EABC). Within the EAMC and EABC were 18 and 35 samples, respectively, that were released as biofortified lines. All samples were measured for Fe concentration. The Caco-2 cell bioassay assessed Fe bioavailability of the EAMC. Biofortified versus nonbiofortified samples were compared by the appropriate t-test or ANOVA. RESULTS: The Fe concentration of the 58 nonbiofortified EAMC lines was (mean ± SD [range]) 71 ± 9 µg/g (52-93 µg/g) which did not differ significantly from the 18 biofortified EAMC varieties (71 ± 11 µg/g [55-94 µg/g]). The Fe concentration of the 119 nonbiofortified EABC varieties was 66 ± 7 µg/g (51-90 µg/g) which was significantly different (P < 0.0001) from the 35 EABC biofortified lines (73 ± 9 µg/g [60-91 µg/g]). However, the EABC biofortified lines were not different from the nonbiofortified EAMC samples. In the Caco-2 cell bioassay, biofortified EAMC varieties did not deliver more Fe compared with nonbiofortified EAMC varieties. CONCLUSIONS: The assumptions of the high Fe bean biofortification approach are not met in the East African marketplace. Iron concentration and bioavailability measurement indicate the biofortified bean varieties are providing no additional dietary Fe.

Consumption of Iron-Biofortified Beans Positively Affects Cognitive Performance in 18- to 27-Year-Old Rwandan Female College Students in an 18-Week Randomized Controlled Efficacy Trial.

Background: Evidence shows that iron deficiency in adulthood may affect cognitive performance, possibly by disrupting neurotransmitter regulation or brain energy metabolism. Women of reproductive age (WRA) are among those who are most vulnerable to iron deficiency; however, they have been largely ignored in the literature relating iron status to cognition.Objective: Our aim was to determine the efficacy of iron-biofortified beans in improving cognition in WRA compared with control beans.Methods: A double-blind, randomized intervention study was conducted in 150 women aged 18-27 y with low iron status (ferritin <20 µg/L). Women were randomly assigned to consume iron-biofortified beans (86.1 ppm iron) or control beans (50.1 ppm iron) daily for 18 wk. Iron status was assessed based on hemoglobin, ferritin, transferrin receptor, and body iron values and on cognitive performance on 5 computerized tasks at baseline and endline.Results: Groups did not differ on any variables at baseline. Per protocol analyses revealed that consumption of the biofortified beans resulted in a 17% larger improvement in the speed of spatial selective attention; a nearly 7-fold larger improvement in the speed, a 68% greater improvement in the efficiency, and a >2-fold greater improvement in the specificity of memory retrieval; and a >2-fold larger improvement in the speed and a >3-fold larger improvement in the efficiency of memory search-all of which are relative to consumption of the control beans (P < 0.01 for all comparisons).Conclusions: Cognitive performance is sensitive to iron status, and consumption of iron-biofortified beans for 18 wk improved cognitive performance, especially the efficiency of search and the speed of retrieval on memory tasks, in young adult women. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01594359.

Consuming Iron Biofortified Beans Increases Iron Status in Rwandan Women after 128 Days in a Randomized Controlled Feeding Trial.

BACKGROUND: Food-based strategies to reduce nutritional iron deficiency have not been universally successful. Biofortification has the potential to become a sustainable, inexpensive, and effective solution. OBJECTIVE: This randomized controlled trial was conducted to determine the efficacy of iron-biofortified beans (Fe-Beans) to improve iron status in Rwandan women. METHODS: A total of 195 women (aged 18-27 y) with serum ferritin <20 µg/L were randomly assigned to receive either Fe-Beans, with 86 mg Fe/kg, or standard unfortified beans (Control-Beans), with 50 mg Fe/kg, 2 times/d for 128 d in Huye, Rwanda. Iron status was assessed by hemoglobin, serum ferritin, soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), and body iron (BI); inflammation was assessed by serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum α1-acid glycoprotein (AGP). Anthropometric measurements were performed at baseline and at end line. Random weekly serial sampling was used to collect blood during the middle 8 wk of the feeding trial. Mixed-effects regression analysis with repeated measurements was used to evaluate the effect of Fe-Beans compared with Control-Beans on iron biomarkers throughout the course of the study. RESULTS: At baseline, 86% of subjects were iron-deficient (serum ferritin <15 µg/L) and 37% were anemic (hemoglobin <120 g/L). Both groups consumed an average of 336 g wet beans/d. The Fe-Beans group consumed 14.5 ± 1.6 mg Fe/d from biofortified beans, whereas the Control-Beans group consumed 8.6 ± 0.8 mg Fe/d from standard beans (P < 0.05). Repeated-measures analyses showed significant time-by-treatment interactions for hemoglobin, log serum ferritin, and BI (P < 0.05). The Fe-Beans group had significantly greater increases in hemoglobin (3.8 g/L), log serum ferritin (0.1 log µg/L), and BI (0.5 mg/kg) than did controls after 128 d. For every 1 g Fe consumed from beans over the 128 study days, there was a significant 4.2-g/L increase in hemoglobin (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The consumption of iron-biofortified beans significantly improved iron status in Rwandan women. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01594359.

Genetic and physiological analysis of iron biofortification in maize kernels.

BACKGROUND: Maize is a major cereal crop widely consumed in developing countries, which have a high prevalence of iron (Fe) deficiency anemia. The major cause of Fe deficiency in these countries is inadequate intake of bioavailable Fe, where poverty is a major factor. Therefore, biofortification of maize by increasing Fe concentration and or bioavailability has great potential to alleviate this deficiency. Maize is also a model system for genomic research and thus allows the opportunity for gene discovery. Here we describe an integrated genetic and physiological analysis of Fe nutrition in maize kernels, to identify loci that influence grain Fe concentration and bioavailability. METHODOLOGY: Quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis was used to dissect grain Fe concentration (FeGC) and Fe bioavailability (FeGB) from the Intermated B73 × Mo17 (IBM) recombinant inbred (RI) population. FeGC was determined by ion coupled argon plasma emission spectroscopy (ICP). FeGB was determined by an in vitro digestion/Caco-2 cell line bioassay. CONCLUSIONS: Three modest QTL for FeGC were detected, in spite of high heritability. This suggests that FeGC is controlled by many small QTL, which may make it a challenging trait to improve by marker assisted breeding. Ten QTL for FeGB were identified and explained 54% of the variance observed in samples from a single year/location. Three of the largest FeGB QTL were isolated in sister derived lines and their effect was observed in three subsequent seasons in New York. Single season evaluations were also made at six other sites around North America, suggesting the enhancement of FeGB was not specific to our farm site. FeGB was not correlated with FeGC or phytic acid, suggesting that novel regulators of Fe nutrition are responsible for the differences observed. Our results indicate that iron biofortification of maize grain is achievable using specialized phenotyping tools and conventional plant breeding techniques.

Use of white beans instead of red beans may improve iron bioavailability from a Tanzanian complementary food mixture.

In the study presented, an in vitro digestion/Caco-2 cell culture model was used to assess the amount of bioavailable iron from a modified Tanzanian complementary food formulation. The main objective of the study was to determine whether a change from red beans to white beans in the complementary food recipe would improve iron bioavailability from the mixture, as recent studies had indicated that iron bioavailability in white beans is significantly higher compared to that in the colored beans. The white beans had a significantly higher (p<0.0001) amount of ferritin formation (13.54 ng/mg) when compared to all other porridge ingredients including the red beans (2.3 ng/mg), and it is plausible that the complementary food formulated with the white beans may be superior to that formulated with the red beans, with reference to iron bioavailability. The results are important as they suggest that substitution of complementary food ingredients with high anti-nutrient concentrations with those that have lower anti-nutrient concentrations may improve iron bioavailability from complementary food home-recipes.

In vitro estimates of iron bioavailability in some Kenyan complementary foods.

BACKGROUND: Iron-deficiency anemia is by far the most widespread micronutrient deficiency disease in the world, affecting more than 2 billion people. Although there are multiple causes of anemia, its high prevalence among children-especially in developing countries such as Kenya-is attributed to an inadequate intake of dietary iron. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was to assess the amount of bioavailable iron in Kenyan complementary foods and to determine whether strategies such as food diversification using locally available foods would improve the bioavailability of iron from these foods. METHODS: The in vitro iron bioavailability system/ Caco-2 cell model that mirrors the gastric and intestinal digestion of humans was used in this study to estimate the amount of bioavailable iron in the porridges. RESULTS: The addition of cassava significantly increased the amount of ferritin formation in a cereal-based home recipe from 36.74 to 67.58 ng/mg. The in vitro data suggests that home recipes can provide an equal or greater amount of bioavailable iron as the commercially available nonfortified porridge products. However, in vitro assessment showed that the nonfortified recipes had less bioavailable iron than Cerelac, a commercially available fortified complementary food that provides about 26% of the RDA of iron for infants 6 and 7 months of age per serving (p < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: In addition to diet diversity, more approaches to address iron inadequacy of complementary foods are required to improve the bioavailability of iron from the Kenyan complementary foods analyzed.

Micronutrient sprinkles add more bioavailable iron to some Kenyan complementary foods: studies using an in vitro digestion/Caco-2 cell culture model.

Iron deficiency anaemia is arguably the most important public health problem in developing countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, iron deficiency anaemia has largely been attributed to poor infant feeding practices where complementary foods low in iron bioavailability are offered to at-risk infants. Home fortification of complementary foods using micronutrient Sprinkles has been shown to reduce iron deficiency anaemia in many resource-poor settings. In this study, the benefit of using the micronutrient Sprinkles as a home fortificant for some Kenyan complementary foods was assessed using an in vitro Caco-2 cell model. In each case when micronutrient Sprinkles were added to the complementary food, the amount of Caco-2 cell ferritin formation increased. For example, the addition of Sprinkles to corn porridge increased ferritin formation 5-fold from 5.8 to 31.8 ng mg(-1). Therefore, as indicated by the results, micronutrient Sprinkles would be a suitable form of home fortification for Kenyan complementary foods. Their use should be encouraged so as to improve infant feeding practices in Kenya.