Diet imbalance is a major challenge in human and animal nutrition... absence of micronutrients in diets spells malnutrition and nutrition related diseases....
Dear Stanley,
Maybe the following recent papers will help you:
Ruel-Bergeron JC, Stevens GA, Sugimoto JD, Roos FF, Ezzati M, Black RE, Kraemer K. Global Update and Trends of Hidden Hunger, 1995-2011: The Hidden Hunger Index. PLoS One 2015;10(12):e0143497. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4684416/pdf/pone.0143497.pdf
Ghosh-Jerath S, Singh A, Magsumbol MS, Kamboj P, Goldberg G. Exploring the Potential of Indigenous Foods to Address Hidden Hunger: Nutritive Value of Indigenous Foods of Santhal Tribal Community of Jharkhand, India. J Hunger Environ Nutr 2016;11(4):548-568. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5080971/pdf/when-11-548.pdf
Oguntoyinbo FA, Fusco V, Cho GS, Kabisch J, Neve H, Bockelmann W, et al. Produce from Africa's Gardens: Potential for Leafy Vegetable and Fruit Fermentations. Front Microbiol 2016;7:981. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4932199/pdf/fmicb-07-00981.pdf
Gupta SM, Arora S, Mirza N, Pande A, Lata C, Puranik S, Kumar J, Kumar A. Finger Millet: A "Certain" Crop for an "Uncertain" Future and a Solution to Food Insecurity and Hidden Hunger under Stressful Environments. Front Plant Sci 2017;8:643. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5404511/pdf/fpls-08-00643.pdf
Best wishes from Germany,
Martin
Study on prevalence of deficiencies which is specific for each micronutrient e.g. for Iodine, total goiter rate and Urinary Iodine concentration is use. Tackling depends on the cause which might be studied by investigating the diet e.g. dietary iodine intake. Otherwise the most widely applied strategies for micronutrient deficiencies (hidden hunger) generally include; dietary diversification, supplementation, food fortification and biofortification
It is predominantly the problem of Asian & African countrire
Hidden hunger (also known as micro-nutrient deficiencies) is hard to observe and intervene among working adults (which explains the lack of public data in this area of research).
These nutrients are especially critical during rapid growth in infants when their brain grows the fastest. Some damages are irreversible. Therefore any prevention and/or treatment effort must be done at early years. Cost-effective strategies have been successfully implemented in many western countries.
Few ongoing discussions related to micro-nutrient deficiencies are: dual burden of nutritional disorders, and over-dose of micronutrients.
Professor Ernesto Pollitt, Professor of Human Development, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, is selected to receive this Award (Prince Mahidol Award) for the remarkable progress in understanding the important and often permanent effects of food on the learning and behavior of children. He was the first to demonstrate the effect of even subclinical iron deficiency on cognitive performance of young children. Through field studies in Egypt, Indonesia, Thailand and Peru, he defined the conditions under which the effect is permanent. As a result iron deficiency in early children is now recognized a s an important cause of permanent scholastic impairment of underprivileged children internationally he has profoundly influenced the policies of UNESCO, UNHCR, WHO, World Bank, and national governments.
In Thailand, weekly iron syrup is provided to children aged from 6 months to 5 years under the universal health care coverage. Weekly iron tabets are also suplemented to school children and women of reproductive age while daily dose is distributed to pregnant women routinely.
Iodized salt is available nationwide. Vitamin A is fortified in sweet condensed milk.
Dear Utoomporn Sittisingh, what will be the fate of less developed countries whose government pay less attention to health policies.. anyways thanks for your contribution.
Dear Stanley, you can do the food-based approach to tackle the problem. We also have a problem of low compliance of taking iron supplementation among the target group. I am trying to combat this problem by applying health literacy model approach to women of reproductive age in factories to end up the life cycle of micronutrient deficiency.
Professor David J.P. Barker, Director of MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton
In a series of epidemiological studies, Professor Barker has shown that people who had low birth weight or who were thin of stunted at birth, have a high rates of coronary disease and the related disorders of strokes, diabetes and hypertension in adult life. This has led to the hypothesis that some coronary heart disease originates through fetal adaptation to malnutrition in uteri.
Government policies to improve the health of poorer people in Britain increasingly recognize the importance of optimizing the nutrition of girls and young women in order to prevent chronic disease in the next generation. UNICEF is currently examining method of protecting the health and nutrition of young women in India as means of controlling the rising epidemic of coronary heart disease and diabetes.
Both Professor David J. P. Barke and Professor Ernesto Pollitt received Prince Mahidol Award in 2000. I quoted the messages from www.princemahidolaward.org
The first cause of the plant is the physiological form of the plant and then the analysis of the plant to detect the elements in it
from the public health point of view, it is good to approach hide hunger through its public health impact; using that as its take off point rather than tracking individual (countless) micronutrients through the food cycle of production, distribution and absorption. thus, common resulting problems in any society like anaemia and vitamin a deficiency can become good recognisable and measurable proxy indicators of hidden hunger.
we must remember that food is available to us in composite forms and not as molecular elements. finally this understanding must lead us to availability of micronutrients through known composite sources of micronutrients - fruits and vegetables as well as non-veg sources. thus it all leads us (or should lead us) back into access to dietary sufficiency and diversity as public health solutions. the caution is not to fall into the trap of strategies that offer singular and narrow solutions for hidden hunger like nutraceuticals that go after individual micronutrients. of course, micronutrients will always be needed as helpful adjuncts, but not to replace the notion of food security.
the other evaluation that is required in terms of being able to offer solutions is how the market impacts or even creates hidden hunger by the profusion of low-cost pre processed foods that are flooding us. first all the nutrients are processed out of food and then some are added back in. would be interesting to see what it leads to - more, or less hidden hunger?
AROUND THE WORLD, more than 2 billion people are thought to be affected by an often invisible form of malnutrition: micronutrient malnutrition, commonly known as hidden hunger.1 Vitamin and mineral deficiencies—at least in mild to moderate forms—may not be as observable as wasting or obesity, but their effects are far-reaching. Globally, vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is the leading cause of blindness in children.2 Iodine deficiency causes 18 million babies to be born mentally impaired each year.3 And severe anemia caused by lack of iron is associated with the deaths of 115,000 women annually during childbirth.4 Vitamin A, iodine, and iron are classified as “the big three,” but deficiencies of other micronutrients, such as folate, zinc, vitamin B12, and vitamin D, are also important.
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