The hidden hunger for vitamins and micronutrients
10. Juni 2009 | Von atsil2 | Kategorie:English feature_ENicholas Kristof, op-ed columnist of the New York Times, writes about Vitamin A deficiency, blind children and the lack of adequate supply of micronutrients in poor countries:
What a Little Vitamin A Could Do
Over half a million children die or go blind each year because they are vitamin A deficient. There’s a simple fix: inexpensive supplements.
They call it the Hidden Hunger, but they do not mean the overt and obvious hunger of poor people who are unable to afford enough to eat, but a more insidious type caused by eating food that is cheap and filling but deficient in essential vitamins and micronutrients.
Kristof:
Yet one of the great Western misconceptions is that severe malnutrition is simply about not getting enough to eat. Often it’s about not getting the right micronutrients — iron, zinc, vitamin A, iodine — and one of the most cost-effective ways outsiders can combat poverty is to fight this “hidden hunger.”
He points to the correlation between raising food prices and Vitamin A deficiency:
The general rise in food prices (in part because of American use of corn for ethanol) is leading to more micronutrient deficiencies. One study found that a 50 percent rise in food prices in poor countries leads to a 30 percent drop in iron intake.
from: Hidden Hunger (New York Times)
is the global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness, launched jointly by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) with an international membership of NGOs, professional associations, eye care institutions and corporations.
“Vitamin A”-programs are of main concern for the national Red Cross organisations either. International campaigns like “A United Call to Action on Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies” put in great efforts to limit Vitamins A deficiencies – read the report!
Help Needed!
You can support the VAD-Operation 20/20-campaign of the Vitamin Angels in the U.S.A. and are providing extensive support to malnourished children worldwide:
Vitamin Angels is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing vital nutrition in the form of supplements, to developing countries, communities and individuals in need. Vitamin Angels has set its sights on the issue of childhood blindness, with plans to eliminate childhood blindness by the year 2020 through the systematic distribution of vitamin A to at-risk children. Just $1 provides sufficient funding to preserve the sight of one child. In addition, Vitamin Angels sponsors programs to supply multivitamins to at-risk children and vital supplements to expecting mothers. Vitamin Angels programs and initiatives are funded through the support of generous monetary and in-kind donations from companies and individuals seeking to making a difference.
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