The National Institute for Nutrition in Vietnam has produced a regional
alternative to the peanut-paste treatment known as Plumpy’Nut to treat
malnutrition in Southeast Asia.
The National Institute for
Nutrition in Vietnam is hoping a new locally produced food to treat
malnutrition will offer a regional alternative to the peanut-paste treatment
known as Plumpy’Nut that is widely used in sub-Saharan Africa.
Until recently there was no
formally marketed, nationally distributed “therapeutic” foodstuff to treat
malnutrition in Vietnam, and a 2009 study in neighbouring Cambodia revealed
that Plumpy’Nut did not appeal to local tastes.
“It’s (Plumpy’Nut) a paste eaten
straight from a package, which is not normally something eaten in Vietnam or
Cambodia,” said Frank Wieringa a senior researcher at the Research Institute
for Development (IRD), based at the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) in
Vietnam.
“Health workers didn’t like it,
mothers didn’t like it – it was not just the taste but the whole form of the
paste and cultural acceptance.”
NIN and IRD, with support from UN
Children’s Fund (UNICEF), have developed a treatment for malnutrition in
Vietnam made from mung beans rather than peanuts, and looks and tastes like
traditional bean cakes.
Malnutrition affects 780,000
children in Vietnam annually, 210,000 of whom are severely malnourished,
according to UNICEF. An additional 2.1 million children younger than five years
are “stunted,” or shorter than the average height for their age, either because
they did not get enough food, or the food was not nutritious enough, during
their early years.
As part of a broader program to
fight malnutrition, the mung bean product was introduced in 2011 in the central
Vietnamese province of Kon Tum, where the rate of stunting was 9.2 percent in
2010, the highest level recorded nationwide.
“I fed it to my three-year-old
son for five days and he put on nearly one kilogram,” said Y Khi, 34, from the
Ro Ngao ethnic minority group in the mountainous Central Highlands. Y Khi grows
rice and cassava to make a living, and says she struggles to feed her seven
children.
Known locally as “hebi,” the mung
bean cakes are popular with some children, she said, but not others.
“They first gave me 10 packages
for my youngest daughter, who is 13 months old, but she couldn’t eat it because
she didn’t like the taste,” Y Khi said, speaking via telephone from a health
center in the Dak La commune in the highlands.
“I am trying to give my daughter
milk to prevent her from becoming more malnourished, but it’s difficult to buy
milk. It’s difficult to give babies hebi, but for children who can eat it, it’s
very good.”
Both institutes are developing
another product with fewer micronutrients and calories to treat moderate
malnutrition at a lower cost, and plans to supply both products to other
countries in the region on a non-profit basis.
“The Philippines [is] very
interested in this product, Cambodia as well,” Wieringa said, noting that
countries eventually need to produce their own therapeutic foods. “I think that
countries would like to change the taste and texture a bit, depending on local
preference.”
Whether to manufacture or import
would be determined by need. Importing therapeutic foods can be expensive due
to customs paperwork, fees and storage, said Huynh Nam Phuong from the NIN.
“It depends on how big the
problem of malnutrition is, the capacity of health, nutrition and food production
(systems), and the culture.”
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Source: IRIN
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