UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The brainpower of entire nations has diminished because of a shortage of the right vitamins, and slipping nutrients into people's food seems to be the only solution, a new U.N. survey says.
To fight the problem, the United Nations is prescribing a whole pantry of artificially fortified foods: soy sauce laced with zinc, "super salt" spiked with iron, cooking oil fortified with vitamin A.
Deficiencies in these vitamins are having alarming effects in developing countries, even ones where people generally have enough to eat, said the study, released Wednesday.
A lack of iron lowers children's IQs by an average five to seven points, the report said. A deficiency in iodine cuts it 13 more points, said Venkatesh Mannar, president of the Micronutrient Initiative, which produced the report along with the United Nations Children's Fund. Birth defects increase when mothers don't get enough folic acid, and a shortage of vitamin A makes children 25-30 percent more likely to die of disease.
[...snip...]
"A difference of five to seven IQ points doesn't sound like a lot, but you have to look at the tail ends of the (statistical) curve," Garza said. "You are significantly reducing the number of gifted people and increasing the number of people with mental incapacities."
Entire article at:
<<http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/diet.fitness/03/24/brain.food.ap/index.html>>
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