Ensuring Cognitive Recovery for Malnourished Children
Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) revolutionized the treatment of severe acute malnutrition for children and has saved millions of lives over the past decade. While RUTF has been proven effective in improving children’s physical recovery, the same investigators who were involved in the early development of RUTF have recently demonstrated that lipids in the current standard RUTF can actually lead to a reduction in the fatty acids necessary to revitalize neural tissue for brain development. These investigators now believe the existing RUTF formula – made from peanuts, palm oil, and milk powder – is not only inadequate to improve neurocognitive development in children but may actually compromise brain growth due to excessive omega 6 fatty acids.
A small study has demonstrated that with a slight adjustment in the formula to incorporate newly available non-GMO high-oleic peanuts, RUTF can support physical growth and provide the fatty acids necessary for growth of brain cell structure. Africare (formerly the Accordia Global Health Foundation) and its collaborators will lead a randomized control trial (RCT) with 3,700 children through the Institute for Child Wellness in Malawi to learn whether these findings are extended to mental and behavioral development. If the RCT is successful, standard global management of malnutrition will be transformed to enhance brain development while also providing lifesaving physical nourishment to the roughly 3 million children per year who receive RUTF.