Vitamin A makes a convert

Grahame Jackson is a plant pathologist and root crops expert who’s been working in the South Pacific for I guess going on for 30 years now. ((Full disclosure: He’s also a good friend of mine.)) Yet he’s not afraid of admitting he can still learn something by doing intensive fieldwork, as you can read over at my old stamping ground, PGR News from the Pacific, now ably helmed by Tevita Kete:

I have become a vitamin A convert! I know you will be aghast as such a revelation, but it is true. A few days ago I spent 10 days in the Kwaio bush on Malaita, visiting some of the most isolated villages in Solomons, certainly the most impoverished. In some villages it was 12 hours walk to a school or clinic. Many were of traditional belief, so no support services such as those that churches might give Christian communities. General health was awful. We were fortunate to have Chris Chevalier with us, who is not only a community health specialist but also a trained nurse. His survey of child health records and interviews with mothers and aid post staff were very instructive; the conclusions left no doubt that malnutrition in children was an important problem in bush villages. Through my ignorance, I did not realise the importance of vitamin A in children, especially during the weaning period; I thought it was all about eye sight and other things in adults. I am a little wiser now and realise, not only the importance of greens because of their high vitamin A content, but also the potential of orange fleshed sweet potato for kids. So how come I missed this: am I the only one in the world short of this information. If not, have scientists lost the art of communication? This is what Chris said in our report: In particular, there is a need to make mothers aware of the importance of foods high in vitamin A. Vitamin A has a very important role in child health andsurvival. It increases resistance to infection, particularly ARI, diarrhoea, and blindness by protecting the linings of the respiratory and digestive systems aswell as preventing eye diseases. In 1991, a vitamin A deficiency survey showed Malaita as one of the areas of highest risk. The food recall carried out during this assessment showed that children are receiving vitamin A primarily from pawpaw. This is insufficient. Other foods which are very high in vitamin A that could be used in the bush include leaves of cassava, sweet potato, pumpkin and sliperi kabis, roots of carrot and fruits of pumpkin. Fern and wild mango would also provide vitamin A levels similar to those of pawpaw. Orange fleshed sweet potatoes also have a role to play. More awareness of the benefits of these foods is required. So, OFSP: bring them on!