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A new spread containing red palm oil is helping South African children to beat Vitamin A deficiency.
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An estimated 250 million preschool children are vitamin A deficient. Perhaps more disturbingly, an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 vitamin A-deficient children become blind every year, half of them dying within 12 months of losing their sight. Vitamin A Deficiency or VAD is the leading cause of preventable blindness and is a public health problem in low-income families in Southeast Asia and Africa.
Vitamin A promotes healthy surface linings of the eyes and the respiratory, urinary, and intestinal tracts. When those linings break down, it becomes easier for bacteria to enter the body and cause infection. Vitamin A deficiency contributes to blindness by making the cornea very dry and damaging the retina and cornea.
Finding a long-term solution to eradicating VAD has been the focus of many health organizations for some time now. In South Africa, scientists have developed a banana-flavoured spread fortified with red palm oil to reduce VAD in rural areas. The new spread substituted the regular peanut butter and jam sandwich for trials in a school feeding programme in Cape Town, and the results were more than encouraging. Just two teaspoons provide up to 76% of a child’s daily recommended allowance, more than 4 times that of their regular sandwich in the current feeding programme.
The spread is also fortified with Vitamin C, zinc, selenium and iron. Combine this with the fact that red palm oil is inherently high in carotenoids and tocotrienols (both of which are powerful components of Vitamin E), and it’s a clear winner. Amongst other benefits noted was an improved hemoglobin level in anemic children. Red palm oil is also versatile enough to be included into other food products like muffins and cookies, and thanks to its high antioxidant levels, it does not go rancid.
So it’s all good, but what does it taste like?
A resounding thumbs-up from the kids, who said it tasted better than their pb&j?
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