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Use of Fermented Foods to Combat Stunting and Failure to Thrive Shailee Saran, MSc, Sarath Gopalan, MD, and T. Prasanna Krishna, PhD Presented by Victoria Hahn NUT 190. Background: What are they talking about?. Can fermented foods fight off failure to thrive and stunting?
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Use of Fermented Foods to Combat Stunting andFailure to ThriveShailee Saran, MSc, Sarath Gopalan, MD, and T. Prasanna Krishna, PhDPresented by Victoria HahnNUT 190
Background: What are they talking about? • Can fermented foods fight off failure to thrive and stunting? • Lactobacillus, as well as, Bifidobacterium are the most commonly used probiotics (in favor of life). • They are found in fermented foods such as yogurt, kimchi, kombucha, ect. • These types of foods have been shown to have marked positive increases in: 1) Nutrient content • 2) Control intestine disorders • 3) Can be used to treat food allergies • 4) Can help to increase weight gain during development
(cont.) Why do we care? 1) Child malnutrition is an epidemic in many developing countries. 2) 3 to 4 millions annual deaths occur from acute diarrhea. - 20 to 30% of those deaths are from children. • This study focused on the high rate of stunting and failure to thrive in India. • 50% of children less than 5 years of age are stunted in India! • Why? 1) Impaired gut-mediated immune function 2) Impaired nutrient absorption in the small intestines 3) Poor appetite
What can bacteria do for the kids? • With the hypothesis of, “Failure to thrive is the result of damage to gut epithelium incurred during repeated bouts of gastrointestinal infections,” the use of Lactobacillus as a treatment came to mind. • Lactobacillus containing foods as a low-cost treatment option.
Objective: What did they plan to do? They set out to investigate: 1) The effect in poor Indian communities of supplements with probiotics on children 2 to 5 years regarding growth. 2) Assess differences in morbidity between those being treated (experimental group) and those not being treated (control). Their goal was to promote epithelial regrowth with Lactobacillus-rich foods.
Method: How did they do this? • Kirby Place, New Delhi (India) Subjects- 100 children from Kirby Place. • -Half were part of the control group, half were the experimental. Duration - 6 months Control (n=50) - 2 biscuits Experimental (n=50) - 50mL of beet-dyed curd
(cont.) -Supplements were taken on site. -They used disposable vessels to give the supplements to ensure hygienic conditions and no spillage. -Intake records were maintained daily. -Anthropomorphic data was taken for each child monthly. -Recorded a weekly Morbidity Profile.
Result: What did they find? A significant increase in the weight and height of the experimental group in comparison to the control group.
There was also a significant difference in the number of cases of diarrhea and fever, but not cough and cold.
Discussion: What can we say about this study? Lactobacillus acidophilusmay: 1) Be beneficial in being a low cost treatment for diarrheal morbidity. 2) Accelerate gut-lining regrowth and thus a beneficial means to preventing stunted growth. 3) May inhibit or help to mitigate the inflammatory response as seen by the reduction in diarrhea and fever.
Conclusion: Further thoughts on this research • This study calls out for more investigative research on the benefits of probiotics. • This could include: • - a longer trial time with the same procedures -utilizing Bifidobacterium instead of Lactobacillus • - the addition of prebiotics along with probitotics to see if there is an accelerated boost. • -effect of Lactobacillus on the inflammatory response
