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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Global Health Concerns:
Food-Based Interventions are the Solution
WASHINGTON, DC 20523
http://www.usaid.gov
Press: (202) 712-4320
Public Information: (202) 712-4810
2003-066
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 23, 2003
The U.S. Agency for International Development recognizes the important link between agriculture and the health of children and adults worldwide. The goal of USAID's agricultural programs is to ensure an adequate supply of safe and nutritious foods at an affordable price, while the goal of its nutrition/dietetics programs is to ensure that people eat the right foods in the right quantities to lead healthy and productive lives.
Why Focus on Chronic Diseases?
Health professionals around the world are sounding the alarm that chronic diseases-including cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancers, obesity, and Type II diabetes-are giving rise to a major health crisis in both developing and developed countries. Chronic diseases are the major causes of morbidity and mortality in developed countries. However, "developing countries now face a rising number of deaths and increased disability from chronic diseases. This is largely the result of a nutritional transition whereby increasing numbers of people in developing countries are consuming diets high in fat, sugar, salt and calories and low in fruits and vegetables … Food policies and programs need to take into account the effect of diet upon chronic diseases" (Gro Harlem Brundland, Director General, World Health Organization).
Health Concerns Associated with Urbanization
Shifts in food preferences and dietary patterns leading to a rise in health problems often accompany large-scale movements of people from the country to the city. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the urban population is projected to reach 225 million by 2015, compared to 110 million in 1995. The urban poor typically abandon traditional staples such as beans and cowpeas for processed "convenience" foods of low nutritional value.
Malnutrition and HIV/AIDS
Malnutrition is endemic in many parts of the world. In some regions 35 percent of children have varying degrees of malnutrition, while 10 percent are severely malnourished. Among the factors contributing to this situation, HIV/AIDS plays an important-and growing-role. Millions have died from AIDS, and the pandemic is already so severe that in some countries life expectancy is expected to fall by over 50 percent.
AIDS drains both labor and capital from farming, seriously reducing harvests. At the same time, good nutrition can play a significant role in mitigating the adverse effects of HIV/AIDS and is necessary for effective drug treatment.
Importance of Nutritious Staples in Diets: The Case of Beans and Cowpeas
Beans and cowpeas are considered among the most nutritionally complete of staple foods, constituting the second most important source of dietary protein in many countries in Africa. Epidemiological studies in over 40 countries of the world show a direct link between consumption of dry beans/pulses and reduced incidences of chronic diseases, including cancer. Beans and cowpeas can also be used to enhance child survival. Moreover, beans and cowpeas can provide the additional energy and protein required by those infected with HIV.
It is particularly important to protect mothers infected with HIV. When a mother suffers from HIV/AIDS, her children often lack adequate food and care. At its worst, this leads to an "orphan crisis" and a complete social breakdown, threatening to erase a century of progress.
Food-Based Solutions
USAID programs are seeking to identify and promote food-based solutions to child malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, and chronic diseases (obesity, cancer and related non-infectious illness, etc.). Interventions to improve the diets of populations at risk-children, pregnant mothers, HIV-positive individuals, those consuming unhealthy diets-make sense from a development perspective. Food-based solutions make sustainable improvements in health, increase human productivity and well-being, reduce long-term health care costs, and expand market opportunities for rural farmers and food-processing enterprises.
The USAID-supported Bean/Cowpea Collaborative Research Support Program is:
- Investigating the health benefits of beans and cowpeas for nutritional rehabilitation of children;
- Determining the effects of bean and cowpea consumption on the incidence of colon, prostate and breast cancers;
- Identifying the phyto-constituents in beans and cowpeas which have anti-cancer properties; and
- Promoting community-based dietary interventions to fight against child malnutrition, cancers, and the development of AIDS in HIV-positive women.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years.
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