Plumpy'nut
Brian Klepper
The NY Times has an important op-ed today by Susan Shepherd, a pediatrician and medical advisor to Doctors Without Borders. The core of her message is that as the farm bill progresses through Congress, we should focus not only on the quantity of food that is produced and that we export for relief to underdeveloped nations, but on its quality as well.
Dr. Shepherd describes the difficulties in treating children who are victims of severe malnutrition, particularly in areas like Africa and South Asia where milk and clean water can be scarce.
The US and other international donors current supply fortified blended flours for moderately malnourished children. Much better and more accessible nutrition is available through a ready-to-use food called Plumpy'nut (or Plumpy). But Plumpy costs a little more, and current UN and US guidelines restrict its use to the 3% of children who have already decended to the most acute malnutrition.
Ten years ago, a French pediatric nutritionist affiliated with the World Health Organization, Andre Briend, developed Plumpy'nut, a high protein and high energy food bar comprised of peanut paste, vegetable oil, milk powder, powdered sugar, vitamins and minerals, that can be prepared locally and that has a two year shelf life in an unopened package. Children can be treated at home rather than in hospital settings, a critical advance. They receive 2 packets a day. Delivered in combination with Unimix, a vitamin-enriched flour for making porridge, a 2-4 week treatment costs $20 and can allow 90 percent of severely malnourished children to recover.
One of the lessons of Jeffrey Sachs' book, The End of Poverty, is that we now have the tools to stabilize the billion people who remain in extreme poverty, so that we can then help them onto the bottom rungs of the economic ladder, where they have a chance to prosper.
Despite its current economic gloom, America remains a center of prosperity in a volatile world. Think of the goodwill we could create if we resolved to couple our aid with the best we we've learned in food science and other disciplines. The creation of Plumpy is a shining example of what's possible, and the work of Doctors Without Borders and other relief organizations an inspiration for how we can cultivate peace in the world.
The Doctor Weighs In
in Brian Klepper, PhD, Doctors Without Borders, RUTF, malnutrition, plumpy'nut, plumpynut
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Reader Comments (16)
Just because the people who are doing the overpopulating are unable to see the problem does not mean that the problem does not exist.
The distribution of emergency food for undernourished children is nothing but a temporary patch on a constantly growing problem - I agree completely with the others who have posted: overpopulation is the root of the problem here. Family planning needs to be provided.
Let us not look at biased media pictures of dark children suffering from malnutrition at a refugee camp or hospital and conjecture that the solution to their problem is death. How Kervorkian, and racist. I don't hear anyone saying the solution to poverty and malnutrition in Appalachian children - majority white - is due to overpopulation and they must reduce their numbers. Enough of the complaint that there are too many of the other and too few of us. Get over the fact that most of the world's population is dark, and yes, they are bearing as many children as they want to love and cherish.
Birth control is not a panacea to all ills. It doesn't even always work. People are not a threat to the earth.
Bad economic policies, corruption, and indifference are some of the evils contributing to malnutrition globally. People are the world's primary resource and we live for each other. Unless you like and want a world of one - more power to you.
My only gripe with Plumpy"Nut - I wish it's innovation started in Africa or Asia. However, I applaud Briend and his love for children everywhere.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/19/60minutes/main3386661_page3.shtml
"In the countryside, where 85 percent of people live, girls start marrying as young as 11 years old. By the age of 15 most are wed, and by 16 most have already become mothers. The average woman here will give birth at least eight times in her lifetime. But largely because of malnutrition, one in five of their children will die before they reach the age of five. Of those who survive, half will have stunted growth and never reach full adult height."