Institute for Global Nutrition

Mazira Project evaluates effect of eggs introduced to infants at 6-9 months of age on growth and early child development

March 21, 2019

Research Activities

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.

Moringa - The Next Superfood

October 14, 2018

Research Activities

The “Miracle Tree” That Could Help Feed the World

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.

Prado and colleagues examine associations between maternal nutrition, maternal cognition, and caregiving in Malawi

November 04, 2017

Research Activities

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.

Arram Noshirvan, Brenda Wu (center left and right) with collaborators

UCD medical students research birth prevalence of defects following fortification of wheat at Cameroon

July 13, 2017

Research Activities

Brenda Wu and Arram Noshirvan, medical students with the UC Davis School of Medicine, received Medical Student Research Fellowships to travel to Cameroon to work on a research study which aims to assess the change in birth prevalence of neural tube defects following fortification of wheat flour with folic acid.

UC Davis World Food Center holds workshop on "Aligning the Food System to Meet Dietary Needs: Fruits and Vegetables"

June 26, 2017

Research Activities

The UC Davis World Food Center organized a workshop on "Aligning the Food System to Meet Dietary Needs: Fruits and Vegetables," on June 2-3, 2017, at the UC Davis Conference Center in collaboration with the Program in International and Community Nutrition and the Horticulture Innovation Lab.

Nutrition proposal has ‘transformative potential’ for Haiti: UC Davis team advises fortifying nation’s wheat supply

June 26, 2017

Research Activities

She aspires to provide nutritious food to every malnourished child; he wants to do so as efficiently as possible. Together, they and their UC Davis team and in-country collaborators have won global recognition for their proposals to help boost Haiti out of poverty. Agricultural economist Stephen Vosti, nutritionist Reina Engle-Stone and their colleagues weighed the benefits and costs of five nutrition-focused interventions to address the dismal conditions in the tiny Caribbean nation, hampered by ineffective development policies and buffeted by devastating hurricanes that have hindered recovery from an even more deadly 2010 earthquake.

Dewey, Matias, and Mridha publish articles showing that children get physical and intellectual boost from lipid-based nutrient supplements

March 14, 2017

Research Activities

Moms and dads caught in the frenzy of raising little ones probably don't realize it, but the first 1,000 days of their children's lives truly are "golden" - precious, that is, in their implications for future growth and development.

Reina Engle-Stone helping to improve health in developing countries with flour and oil

February 24, 2017

Research Activities

Reina Engle-Stone was halfway through her biology degree at Cornell University when she discovered global nutrition. Her introduction was a nutritional epidemiology class, and almost immediately she was hooked. “You could take biology and apply it to other things. I thought, this is great, this is what I want to do,” she says.

Beth Prado lead author on paper showing impact of prenatal vitamins on cognitive development in children

February 22, 2017

Research Activities

For all the moms who obediently popped their prenatal vitamins during pregnancy while wondering if the supplements could actually benefit their babies, an international research group has the answer, and it’s a resounding “yes.”

Lipid-based prenatal supplement improves infant health and nutrition in Bangladesh

January 04, 2016

Research Activities

Since 2008, Kathryn Dewey has coordinated a massive, international research effort called the “iLiNS”, or International Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplements Project. The project focuses on formulating and evaluating cost-effective, lipid-based supplements — much like peanut butter — that have shown promise for improving nutrition for children and women in impoverished nations. Recent results indicate that fortified, lipid- or fat-based nutritional supplements provided during pregnancy to women in Bangladesh reduced stunting, abnormally low weight and small head size in babies born to these women.

PICN faculty partner in $8.3 million effort to fight childhood malnutrition

March 26, 2014

Research Activities

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, will join in an international research effort to develop new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent malnutrition in infants and children around the world.

Tiny packets of hope

March 26, 2014

Research Activities

Images of mud huts, lush jungle growth and rust-colored soil flash across Steve Vosti’s computer screen as the UC Davis economist scans photos of some of his research sites.

Research Activities