Staple food by type in DHS nutrition surveys [message #25060] |
Thu, 25 August 2022 05:37 |
R K Sanjeev
Messages: 2 Registered: August 2022
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The geographies with higher child malnutrition have low dietary diversity. However, they consume different staples depending on soil and climate characteristics. These staples are cereals and tubers. Cereals are rice, wheat, sorghum, pearl millet, maize, teff and others. Tubers are cassava, potato, banana, plantain, enset and so on. Both groups are nutritionally diverse. There are differences in type of staple food consumed across geographies which could have a bearing on prevalence of child wasting, stunting, short stature or low BMI. Some of the staples like pearl millet are rich in Iron. Wheat has higher amout of phytates. This could be of relevance in prevalence of anemia. This could be relevant particularly when dietary diversity is poor.
Staple foods have different nutritional properties depending on the type of cooking they are subjected to. Dry heat could be denaturing proteins while fermentation or soaking could be enhancing their nutritional content. Nixtamalization of maize helps in preventing pellagra.
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