UN Reports One in Three Has Severe Nutritional Deficiencies

UN Reports One in Three Has Severe Nutritional Deficiencies

UNITED NATIONSA United Nations report released March 22 announced upto one-third of the worlds population does not meet their physical orintellectual potential because of vitamin and mineral deficiencies. The GlobalProgress Report (www.unicef.org/media/files/vmd.pdf),prepared by the Micronutrient Initiative and UNICEF, highlighted deficiencies iniodine, iron, vitamin A, vitamin B12, folic acid, zinc and riboflavin. The plancalls for food fortification, supplementation and education. In particular, thereport called on the food industry to develop, market and distribute low-costfortified food products and supplements to alleviate these deficiencies.

The heart of the problem is seen in developing nations. The people in thesecountries live mainly on a monotonous regimen of starchy staples such as wheat,rice, maize and millet. These grains do not provide adequate amounts of vitaminsand minerals, and most often contain phytates, which inhibit the absorption ofiron.

It is no longer a question of treating severe deficiency in individuals,wrote Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF. It is a question ofreaching out to whole populations to protect them against the devastatingconsequences of even moderate forms of vitamin and mineral deficiency.

This report was created to help the UN meet its Millennium Development Goalsof eradicating extreme poverty, improving maternal health and reducing childmortality by two-thirds by 2015.

The report highlights the problems caused by severe vitamin and mineraldeficiencies, such as anemia and blindness, and sheds new light on recentlydiscovered health links, such as a lack of iron impairs intellectual developmentin young children and lowers national IQs. Other problems include vitamin Adeficiency, which compromises the immune systems of approximately 40 percent ofchildren under age 5 in developing countries, ultimately leading to 1 milliondeaths each year.