Locally grown crops could expand access to childhood malnutrition treatment
For millions of children suffering from severe malnutrition, an effective treatment already exists. The problem is that many of them never receive it.
A new study led by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem suggests that producing therapeutic food for treating childhood malnutrition closer to where it is needed could help expand access to this treatment. The study, published in Current Developments in Nutrition, examined a high-protein therapeutic food made from chickpeas, sorghum, corn, and soybeans, ingredients that are widely available in sub-Saharan Africa.
The researchers found that the plant-based formulation, known as ChSMS, supported substantially better recovery from malnutrition than a commercial peanut-and-milk formulation, with higher protein content and quality. The study's lead author, Dr. Aurélie Bechoff, emphasized that access to treatment is a major challenge, and if therapeutic foods can be produced from locally grown ingredients, it may be possible to reduce dependence on costly imports and make treatment available to more children.
International guidelines have also begun to make such approaches more feasible, with earlier requirements calling for a significant portion of the protein in therapeutic foods to come from dairy products.
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