Gut health: why food alone won’t fix childhood stunting
- Roughly 150 million children under five remain stunted (too short for their age).
- Children’s growth is affected not only by what they eat, but also by how well their bodies can process and absorb nutrients.
- Addressing childhood stunting requires moving beyond single interventions such as providing food.
Prof. Thulani Makhalanyane, holder of the NRF-SU research chair in African Microbiome Innovation in the Department of Microbiology, and Prof. Ronelle Burger from the Department of Economics, have co-authored an article in The Conversation Africa in which they outline emerging evidence demonstrating that poverty affects children's physiology - the way their bodies work. The argue that addressing childhood stunting therefore requires moving beyond single interventions such as providing food. What is needed are integrated approaches that simultaneously tackle sanitation, infection control, nutrition quality and early childhood stimulation.
Read the article here Gut health: why food alone won’t fix childhood stunting
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