U.S. interests in such interventions have three 

 components beyond humanitarian compassion for 

 suffering: (1) an effective means of modifying dietary 

 behavior will be important in relation to U.S. problems 

 of obesity and excessive caloric and "junk food" 

 intake; (2) understanding the functional significance 

 of malnutrition for individuals will facilitate better 

 food and nutrition policymaking and planning in the 

 United States; and (3) most importantly, the reduced 

 human potential caused by poor maternal and child 

 nutrition has indirect but definite effects worldwide. 



Proposed Initiatives 



Me recommend that the United states propose 

 international collaboration on an expanded program of 

 nutritional research, and pledge expansion of U.S. 

 research and development and cooperation with 

 developing countries on nutritional guestions that are 

 important to those countries. This initiative could 

 build on and extend work of this type already being 

 planned by AID and USD A, and by the United Nations 

 University and other U-N. bodies. 



Increased collaborative research is needed on the 

 relationships among dietary intake, local environment, 

 and human performance (e.g., performance at work or 

 school, the freguency and severity of infections, 

 physical and mental growth, pregnancy, lactation, 

 family spacing, and general vitality). Additional 

 knowledge is needed to plan, design, and evaluate more 

 effective nutritional interventions. Research on the 

 modification of local diets could profitably be 

 undertaken jointly at the village and university 

 levels, with the introduction of a counterpart plan for 

 having interested American scientists working with 

 colleagues from developing countries, both in the 

 United States and overseas. 



Research should be greatly extended on the 

 development of new foods, such as the vegetable protein 

 supplement Incaparina, which could be used as a weaning 

 food with local modifications of the basic formulation. 

 Research might also be conducted on modifying local 

 diets for infants, young children, and pregnant and 

 lactating women to conform to known dietary 

 requirements for total calories, protein, iron and 

 other minerals, and vitamins. Similarly, test 

 marketing of potential foodstuffs is needed, along with 

 more exploration of the possibility of fortifying local 

 staple foods. 



More relevant training for all types of applied 

 social scientists in the nutrition field is also 

 important. Their training should be carried out both 



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