Research Activities

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.

Infant diets in resource-poor settings are often characterized by low diversity and poor nutrient quality, yet nutrient requirements for infants are high to meet the demands of rapid growth and development. Animal source foods, such as eggs, are nutrient-dense food sources that may improve diet quality for rapidly growing infants.

By Amy Quinton on October 9, 2018 in Food & Agriculture

THERE'S NOTHING SUPER-LOOKING ABOUT MORINGA. It’s skinny and sparse in foliage. Its fragile branches sprout puny white flowers and droop with long twisted pods knobby with seeds. But if plants were superheroes, then moringa would be Iron Man.

Many pregnant women, especially first-time mothers, spend time learning new information about how to care for themselves during pregnancy and planning for caring for their newborn child. After giving birth, mothers are constantly trying to figure out the puzzle of what their infant is trying to communicate to them and how they can best care for their babies' needs. Mothers need optimal cognitive performance, such as the ability to focus and pay attention, memory, and reasoning to do this well, and adequate nutrient intake is necessary for the brain to perform these skills.