New Study, Nutritionally Enhanced Rice

The Journal of Nutrition article, as well as background materials, are available at: http://www.ifpri.org/media/20051205ironrice.asp

Newswise — Religious sisters in ten Catholic convents in the Philippines participated in a groundbreaking study to demonstrate that eating iron-rich rice can improve nutrition. The study, published in the December issue of the Journal of Nutrition, documents a breakthrough in the battle against iron deficiency, one of the developing world's most debilitating and intractable public health problems affecting an estimated 2 billion people.

The lead authors of the journal article, Dr. Jere Haas from the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, Dr. John Beard and Dr. Laura E. Murray-Kolb from the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Pennsylvania State University, Prof. Angelita del Mundo and Prof. Angelina Felix from the University of the Philippines Los Baños, and Dr. Glenn Gregorio from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), oversaw the study in which the sisters included nutritionally enhanced rice in their diets. After 9 months, the women had significantly higher levels of total body iron.

The experimental, iron-dense variety of rice used in the research (known technically as IR68144-3B-2-2-3) was developed and grown at IRRI and then tested by the international team of researchers. The initiative was organized by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), with support from the Asian Development Bank and the Micronutrient Initiative of Canada. HarvestPlus, an international, interdisciplinary research program focused on breeding a number of staple food crops for better nutrition and led by IFPRI and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), will continue to work with these research findings and partners to increase the level of nutrient density in rice to be even more effective.

Through a process known as "biofortification," plant breeders are developing staple foods with higher levels of essential micronutrients. This study demonstrates that iron-biofortified rice can raise levels of stored iron in the body and can significantly contribute to reducing micronutrient malnutrition.

"This study provides 'proof of concept' - that biofortication can work," said Howarth Bouis, director of HarvestPlus. "With this knowledge, we can move forward, breeding rice and other staple crops with higher levels of micronutrients."

International donors and developing country governments spend millions of dollars a year on iron fortification, supplements, and other strategies to ease the enormous damage wreaked by iron deficiency and related conditions. Iron deficiency can affect a child's physical and mental development, and each year causes more than 60,000 maternal deaths during pregnancy and childbirth. Recent statistics from the Micronutrient Initiative and the United Nations Children's Fund indicate that more than half of the developing world's children between 6 months and 2 years of age are iron-deficient during the critical period of their growth when brain development occurs. Many of the worst affected are found among Asia's poorest, but iron deficiency is also widespread in Africa, affecting more than 80 percent of young children in some countries.

"Fortification and supplementation will continue to be important strategies in the fight to improve nutritional status of poor people in developing countries. Biofortification will give the development community an additional tool, and one that is particularly cost-effective and sustainable," noted Bouis.

Nutritional experts correctly advise that the best solution is a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables and meat, but, for the very poor, such choices are simply not possible and so they depend predominantly on staple foods to stave off day-to-day hunger. This is especially true in isolated rural areas where under-resourced and overstretched public health systems struggle to improve the overall nutrition of the world's poor through nutritional supplements. In these areas, commercially fortified foods also have difficulty making it into the mouths of the hungry and so malnutrition persists.

"By volunteering for this study and maintaining the discipline to eat a particular rice three times a day, day in and day out for nine months, the sisters offered a wonderful Christmas present to millions of people worldwide who depend mostly on rice for their diets and suffer poor health as a result of iron deficiency," commented Bouis. "By contributing to our understanding of how to solve this problem, the sisters' gift could last for generations."

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI is one of the 15 Future Harvest Centers and receives its principal funding from 64 governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. Please visit our website at http://www.ifpri.org.