Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are lauding fortified peanut butter as a potential savior for the world’s malnourished children.

The research team has spent several years researching the use of the enriched peanut-butter mixture, called Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), with small groups of malnourished young children in Malawi. Their findings, published in July’s Maternal and Child Nutrition, showed an 89 percent recovery rate in severely malnourished children given RUTF at home.

Providing easily accessible aids to curbing severe malnutrition could not only save millions of lives every year but also overcome an initial hurdle in many children’s lives that has a far-reaching socio-economic impact.

“Mothers in Malawi know that malnutrition is the single biggest threat to their children’s existence,” said Dr. Mark Manary, co-author in the study as well as professor of pediatrics and an emergency pediatrician at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

In developing countries, one in four children - approximately 146 million - are underweight, according to UNICEF figures. Every year, 10.9 million children under the age of five die in the same countries and malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60 percent of these deaths.

The RUTF mixture contains peanuts, powdered milk, oil, sugar, and added vitamins and minerals. For the project, the food was produced in a Malawian factory and donated to the project through funding from UNICEF and the World Food Programme.

As part of the three-year project, village health aides identified severely and moderately malnourished children based on World Health Organization guidelines and then gave the peanut butter to the mothers of those children to give to them at home.

The village aides followed up with the participants every other week for up to eight weeks. Of the 2,131 severely malnourished children treated with the mixture, 89 percent recovered, and of the 806 moderately malnourished children, 85 percent recovered.

“The peanut-butter feeding has been a quantum leap in feeding malnourished children in Africa,” said Manary. “The recovery rates are a remarkable improvement from standard therapy.”

While the researchers had previously seen positive resulting using the peanut butter for malnutrition, it did not have the opportunity to use it on a large-scale feeding program until recently.

“What’s really exciting to me is that we’ve demonstrated that we can put this research into practice on a large scale, it can benefit tens of thousands of kids, and there are not going to be operational barriers in some very remote settings like sub-Saharan Africa,” said Manary.

In 2001, he founded a non-profit organization, the Peanut Butter Project, which produces approximately 300 tons of the RUTF in Malawi each year.

Combating malnutrition through a non-medical method can be important given the lack of on-site medical personnel in many areas. The research team found that the peanut butter feeding program and the involvement of village aides accomplished the task.

The recovery rate for children given standard therapy is less than 50 percent, they said.

The results of the project point to the potential for dietary supplement and functional food companies to get involved in development projects.

NutraCea is one such company that has been leading the way in trying to bring its stabilized rice bran ingredient to such products and projects in developing countries. The manufacturer developed a rice bran technology that provides a rich source of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

The company has been promoting the ingredient as a means of eradicating malnutrition around the world, through the use of what is generally discarded as a waste product.

Source: NutraIngredients/Europe.com, September 13, 2007 and the American Peanut Council Newsletter.

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Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns today reappointed one member and appointed one member and two alternates to serve on the National Peanut Board.

John Clay of Carnegie, Okla., was reappointed to serve a three-year term of office. M. Gayle Walker, member, Portales, N.M., and alternates Gayle White, Frederick Okla. and Richard Robbins, Portales, also will serve three-year terms. The terms for all of the appointees will run from Jan. 1, 2008 to Dec. 31, 2010.

USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service provides oversight and monitors the operations of the National Peanut Board in accordance with the Commodity Promotion Research and Information Act of 1996 and the Peanut Promotion, Research and Information Order. The board is authorized to collect assessments from domestic producers - who pay the rate of 1 percent of the total value of all farmers’ stock peanuts sold. These assessments allow the board to conduct generic promotion and research for consumer and producer information, as well as maintain, develop and expand markets for peanuts.

Source: USDA News Release, September 7, 2007 and the American Peanut Council Newsletter.

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In terms of protein, total fat, and calories, 1 oz of nuts is roughly equivalent to 2 oz of lean meat plus 2 tsp of vegetable oil. Nonetheless, the health benefits of nuts are considerable, as Johns Hopkins nutritionist Lora Brown Wilder explains.

Ask any nutritionist today about nuts, and he or she will tell you they are good for you — in moderation, of course. That’s a whole new way of thinking about nuts, which for years were perceived as “bad” foods because of their high fat and calorie content. But a slew of recent studies have brought a better understanding of nuts’ health benefits. The turnaround has been so dramatic that packages of some nuts have labels approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration touting the possible heart benefits of nuts, and the most recent dietary guidelines mention nuts as good sources of protein and mono- and polyunsaturated fats.

Why Nuts Are Good for You

Nuts pack a powerful nutritional punch. Nuts contain monounsaturated fats, which help lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or “bad”) cholesterol and may raise high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or “good”) cholesterol when substituted for saturated fats in the diet. So it’s not surprising that several major studies have found that eating nuts significantly reduces the risk of coronary heart disease — by 25–50% in both men and women. One of these studies, the Nurses’ Health Study, also found that regularly eating nuts and peanut butter reduces the chance of developing type 2 diabetes by 21–27%.

Besides monounsaturated fats, nuts are rich in vitamins, minerals, and other substances that are beneficial to your health. For example, walnuts contain a type of omega-3 fat similar to fish oil, and almonds contain calcium and vitamin E. Nuts are also good sources of protein and fiber.

Nuts and Weight Control

It sounds paradoxical, because they’re calorie dense (160–200 calories per oz), but research shows that people who eat nuts tend to weigh less than those who don’t eat nuts. Possible explanations: Nut eaters may follow a healthier diet (lower in calories and saturated fat) than people who abstain from nuts, and those who are overweight may shun nuts because of their high-calorie content.

But other factors also may come into play. Nuts are quite filling because of their high protein and fiber content. In one study, subjects who snacked on nuts and peanut butter weren’t hungry for 2.5 hours afterward and, interestingly, spontaneously adjusted their calorie intake for the rest of the day so they didn’t consume extra calories.

Protein also requires more energy to digest than fats or carbohydrates, so you use up more calories in the process. Also, because people tend not to chew nuts fully before swallowing them, they aren’t well digested and some of the calories they contain may be lost in the stool.

Source: Johns Hopkins Health Alert, July 18, 2007 and the American Peanut Council Newsletter.

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