Meat Supplementation Improves Growth, Cognitive, and Behavioral Outcomes in Kenyan Children1,

Abstract

A randomized, controlled school feeding study was conducted in rural Embu District, Kenya to test for a causal link between animal-source food intake and changes in micronutrient nutrition and growth, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes. Twelve primary schools were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups. Children in Standard I classes received the local plant-based dish githeri as a midmorning school snack supplemented with meat, milk, or fat added to equalize energy content in all feedings. The Control children received no feedings but participated in data collection. Main outcome measures assessed at baseline and longitudinally were 24-h food intake recall, anthropometry, cognitive function, physical activity, and behaviors during school free play. For cognitive function, the Meat group showed the steepest rate of increase on Raven's Progressive Matrices scores and in zone-wide school end-term total and arithmetic test scores. The Plain githeri and Meat groups performed better over time than the Milk and Control groups (P < 0.02-0.03) on arithmetic tests. The Meat group showed the greatest increase in percentage time in high levels of physical activity and in initiative and leadership behaviors compared with all other groups. For growth, in the Milk group only younger and stunted children showed a greater rate of gain in height. The Meat group showed near doubling of upper midarm muscle area, and the Milk group a smaller degree of increase. This is the first randomized, controlled feeding study to examine the effect of meat- vs. milk- vs. plant-based snacks on functional outcomes in children.

Nutrition Intakes and Nutritional Status of School Age Children in Ghana

“…Primarily, school-feeding programmes have been established to address hunger and its negative effect on the nutritional status and learning capacity of school-age children (WFP, 2015). Although, the provision of school meals to SAC cannot reverse all damage caused by early nutritional deficits (Bundy, 2009), many studies have reported nutritional and health benefits of school feeding programmes (Afridi, 2010;Ahmed, 2004;Arsenault et al, 2009;Musamali, 2007;Neervoort et al, 2013;Neumann, Murphy, Gewa, Grillenberger, & Bwibo, 2007;Zeba, Martin Prevel, Some, & Delisle, 2006). A systematic review of school-feeding programmes have reported improvements in weight, height in younger children (6-8 years), school attendance, mathematics performance, bone mineral density, arm muscle, concentrations of B -vitamins and behaviour among participants (Kristjansson et al, 2007).…”

School snacks decrease morbidity in Kenyan schoolchildren: a cluster randomized, controlled feeding intervention trial

“…Study participants were not blinded to the group feeding assignment, but they were blinded to study hypotheses, as were teachers and field staff. This is the first cluster randomized, controlled feeding intervention study to analyse the contribution of the addition of ASF, particularly meat, on morbidity outcomes in addition to the previously demonstrated cognitive, behavioural and body composition improvements (47,63) . An unexpected and important outcome was the positive impact of the addition of a considerable amount of retinol to the Plain Githeri snacks, which demonstrated the value of such fortification in reducing morbidity.…”

Brain food: Clever eating

“…So Neumann began a trial in Kenya 3 . Her team selected 12 schools with children aged 6 to 14, and gave some of the children midmorning snacks.…”