Fruit and Vegetable Intake of Females Before, During, and After Introduction of 3 Bundled Food System Interventions in Urban Vietnam and Nigeria.

Background: Low fruit and vegetable (FV) intake in low- and middle-income countries, which is associated with noncommunicable diseases and micronutrient deficiencies, requires food system interventions addressing FV accessibility, affordability, and acceptability. Periodic FV intake monitoring during interventions informs progress toward achieving increased intakes and contributes to understanding the effectiveness of these interventions.

Objectives: This study evaluates the trend in FV intake before, during, and after implementation of a set of nutrition-sensitive food system interventions addressing accessibility, affordability, and acceptability to increase FV consumption over a 1-y period in Vietnamese and Nigerian low-income urban and periurban females.

A simple fruit and vegetable score is a valid tool to assess actual fruit and vegetable intake.

With the recent growing interest in improving fruit and vegetable intake for better health and limited research resources in many settings, simple-to-administer and low-priced indicators are essential tools for monitoring fruit and vegetable intake at the population level. A potential candidate indicator is the fruit and vegetable component of the Global Dietary Recommendation score (FV-GDR) based on data collected using the Diet Quality Questionnaire (DQQ). We investigated the relative validity of FV-GDR collected with the DQQ to measure fruit and vegetable intake by comparison with a 24-h recall (24hR) as a reference collected from 620 Vietnamese and 630 Nigerian adults in 2021.

Evaluation of and Glycemic Index of common staples made from varieties of White Yam ().

Consumption of high Glycemic Index (GI) foods is a risk factor for increasing prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM). The extent of variation in starch digestibility and GI of Yam varieties and products is not yet fully understood. This study was therefore designed to evaluate and Glycemic Index properties of commonly consumed products prepared from varieties of White Yam.

Food Sources of Key Nutrients, Meal and Dietary Patterns among Children Aged 4-13 Years in Ibadan, Nigeria: Findings from the 2019 Kids Nutrition and Health Study.

This study examined the contribution of food to nutrient intake, meal and dietary patterns among children aged 4-8 and 9-13 years in the city of Ibadan, Nigeria. Multi-pass 24-hour dietary recalls were used to assess intakes. Prudent and traditional Southwestern Nigerian dietary patterns were identified among children.

Effect of processing and variety on starch digestibility and glycemic index of popular foods made from cassava (Manihot esculenta).

In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) is rapidly increasing even in populations with significant undernutrition. The role of energy dense staple crops such as cassava is under query and not yet well understood. In this study, varieties of cassava, made into popular SSA products (fufu and gari dough) were studied for their resistant starch (RS), rapidly digestible starch (RDS) and glycemic index (GI).

Double Burden of Malnutrition: Evidence from a Selected Nigerian Population.

Indices reflecting the double burden of malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa are increasing. Evidence to support this claim in households of Africa's most populous country-Nigeria-is scant. This study, therefore, presents results from a study of mother-child pairs sampled from Akwa Ibom State in the southern region of Nigeria.

Assessment of Dietary Diversity of Mothers and Children of 6-24 Months from Eastern and Southern Provinces of Zambia.

In-depth information on dietary diversity and food consumption patterns in Zambian households is still scarce. This study, therefore, probed dietary intakes of mothers and their children living in households of two Zambian districts, Chipata and Monze, located in the eastern and southern provinces of Zambia, respectively. After assessing their diet, Dietary Diversity Scores (DDSs) were calculated and classified into low and high categories, while correlations were used to test determinants of DDS.

Retention of Pro-Vitamin A Content in Products from New Biofortified Cassava Varieties.

Plant breeding efforts in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have produced biofortified cassava with high carotenoid content to address vitamin A deficiencies (VAD). Since carotenoids in foods are easily depleted during processing, the retention of β-carotene in some newly released cassava varieties is under query. From four of these new varieties, two commonly consumed products (gari and its dough) were processed according to standard methods.