Meat an essential element for children's health, scientists say
US - won't bore you with stories of the mountains of research through which I sift each week in an effort to uncover the various initiatives, reports and scientific studies that merit a formal commentary.But it's a lot. In all that skimming and scanning, however, on occasion there appears a study whose conclusions are so apparently self-evident that I find myself wondering, isn't this just common sense? Why are scientists even studying this?
The answer to the first question is generally yes, and with a research project on adding meat to the diet that was publicized this week during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington.
The answer to the second question is that the conclusions often matter greatly: in this case to the hundreds of millions of undernourished people worldwide, as well as to all those identified with the meat industry in this country.
The study in question examined the intake of micronutrients, such as iron and zinc, in the diets of children in the developing world. Not surprisingly, there are typically significant shortages, since so many people in developing countries consume mostly grains and legumes as their culinary staples.
25 February 2005
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