Research Activities

More than 20 years ago, researchers at the Institute for Global Nutrition at UC Davis conducted pioneering research showing that the growth patterns of breastfed infants differ from those of formula-fed infants. This groundbreaking work led the World Health Organization (WHO) to initiate the Multicenter Growth Reference Study, a six-country effort to create new growth standards for children under five years of age. 

The Nigerian government has enacted a new industrial standard for bouillon which includes a provision for adding vital micronutrients. The new standard specifies the inclusion of iron, zinc, folic acid and vitamin B12 on a voluntary basis in nationally produced and imported bouillon cubes to reduce malnutrition and child mortality.

Sometimes, all it takes to eat better is a little nudge in the right direction. A team of UC Davis researchers is working on a new smartphone app that makes it easier to eat healthy by recognizing what’s on your plate and offering personalized suggestions to improve your diet.

The UC Davis Give Day is just a few days away! This year, we are thrilled to have received a donation from the UC Davis Vice Chancellor for Research, Simon Atkinson, to support the Institute for Global Nutrition. 

This donation comes with a challenge-- we need 15 donors to make a gift of any size on or before April 20th to ‘unlock’ the donation. 

A nutrient-rich diet plays a critical role in the first two years of a young child’s life, to support the rapid growth and development that occurs during that period. Yet, millions of vulnerable children all over the world lack access to a diet that is nutritionally adequate, a crisis that has prompted a coalition of nutrition leaders to recommend scaling-up provision of a novel fortified food-based supplement to prevent child malnutrition and mortality among vulnerable children 6–23 months of age.

A small sachet of a fortified food-based supplement added to young children’s daily diets in low- and middle-income countries has shown remarkable results in preventing child mortality and malnutrition, while also promoting healthy development. The new findings from researchers at the University of California, Davis, based on an analysis combining data from 14 trials, were published in a series of four papers in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The pilot UC Global Health Institute (GHI) Center of Expertise (COE) will host a Virtual Webinar Series May-December 2021 on Food Justice & Health Equity with interviews and discussions from researchers and activists spanning California, the US, Brazil, the Caribbean, and Africa which will be compiled on a real-time One Health Food Justice website. The COE will make transformative shifts to address and resolve systemic racism within global health through a collaborative and codesign process.

By Lisa Howard

Bouillon is a staple ingredient in West African cuisine. The cubes are used to flavor soups, stews, gravies and rice. Popular dishes include Red-Red, a bean stew made with red palm oil and fried ripe red plantain, and Jollof Rice, a spicy rice dish prepared with tomatoes, peppers and onions.

On February 27, 2020, Dr. Elizabeth Prado and Dr. Seth Adu-Afarwuah launched a new project in Ghana funded by $2,600,000 from the US National Institutes of Health. The project will be the first long-term follow-up in Africa of a randomized controlled trial in which the intervention group received a fortified food during most of the first 1000 days, from early pregnancy through 18 months of age.

University of California, Davis Emeritus Professor Kenneth Brown lead a team of U.S., Canadian and Dutch scientists working with ReachAnother Foundation and experts at the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) to develop a plan to address the high incidence of neural tube defects. The result was an issue brief released by EPHI in May, titled “Preventing Neural Tube Defects in Ethiopia”, that recommended the government consider salt fortification.