Animal-sourced foods improve child nutrition in Africa

What is it about?

Child undernutrition remains a widespread problem in low- and middle-income countries, contributing to child mortality, morbidity, and physical and cognitive development impairments. The problem is particularly severe in Africa, where households often have insufficient access to nutritious foods. This situation is getting worse through climate change and food price inflation. Hence, understanding which foods and dietary patterns can help improve child nutrition most effectively is key. Previous research showed that the consumption of animal-sourced foods (ASF), including meat, dairy, eggs, and fish, is associated with better child nutritional outcomes, but reliable evidence for Africa is scant. This study uses representative panel data from five African countries—Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda—with over 32,000 observations to show that ASF consumption improves child growth and development and reduces child undernutrition. While nutritious plant-based foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and legumes, can provide most of the nutrients required, they are sometimes not available and accessible all year round in the local contexts. Given the large environmental footprints of livestock farming, initiatives to make food systems more sustainable often call for a strong reduction in ASF consumption. While ASF consumption should be reduced where consumption quantities are high, results from this study suggest that poor households’ access to ASF in Africa should be further improved to help reduce child undernutrition.

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Photo by Ninno JackJr on Unsplash

Photo by Ninno JackJr on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Possible tradeoffs between human nutrition and health and environmental health need to be considered. This study adds an important dimension to the debate about healthy and sustainable diets and food systems with a focus on poor population segments in Africa.