SIGHT AND LIFE NEWSLETTER 1/2006 INCORPORATING THE XEROPHTHALMIA CLUB BULLETIN Correspondents: Bruno de Benoist, William S. Blaner, George Britton, Omar Dary, Frances R. Davidson, John W. Erdman, Jr., Tracey Goodman, Philip Harvey, Richard F. Hurrell, Rolf D. W. Klemm, Donald S. McLaren, Regina Moench-Pfanner, Christine Northrop-Clewes, Vin- odini Reddy, Delia Rodriguez-Amaya, Ram Kumar Shrestha, Noel W. Solomons, Florentino S. Solon, Alfred Sommer, Andrew Tomkins, G. Venkataswamy, Emorn Wasantwisut, Keith P. West Jr., Yu Xiaodong, Michael B. Zimmermann. Editor: Klaus Kraemer Lycopene function Community research in Bangladesh Micronutrient information at WHO IUNS Nutrition Congress Drawing contest Reader survey Annual report Ms Albertine Ramazani from the PROSEVITA project with a refugee family receiving help. Affected by war and social changes, refugee children are particularly vulnerable. They are among the ‘excluded and invisible’ addressed in UNICEF’s annual State of the World’s Children report (see page 47). SIGHT AND LIFE has been supporting Ms Ramazani‘s project for a long time (see article on page 23). SIGHT AND LIFE 2 NEWSLETTER 1/2006 Contents Lycopene intake and prostate cancer risk 4 Inauguration of the extension to the Red Cross Eye Hospital in Janakpur, Nepal; The JiVitA Bangladesh Project: Research to a successful investment against poverty- improve nutrition and health among mothers induced blindness 28 and infants in rural South Asia 10 Edible oil fortification in Bangladesh 29 The micronutrient deficiency information system at the World Health Organization 15 Rural and urban Targeted Initiative Programs in Calcutta 31 Low-income South African consumers’ under- standing of vitamins and minerals and Going Yellow video promotes healthy food fortification 17 food in Micronesia 31 18th International Congress of Nutrition held A digest of recent literature 34 in Durban, South Africa 19 Letters to the editor 42 A campaign to raise awareness of and Publications 44 combat vitamin A deficiency 23 Drawing contest on nutrition for health 48 Vision screening and vitamin A distribution in Achina and Owerre Akokwa, Nigeria 25 SIGHT AND LIFE Annual Report 2005 49 Questionnaire survey of our readers 55 A mother and child health care project in Endaselassie, Ethiopia 26 SIGHT AND LIFE, back cover SIGHT AND LIFE is a humanitarian initiative of DSM Nutritional Products DSM Nutritional Products DSM Nutritional Products is the world‘s leading supplier of vitamins, carotenoids and other fine chemicals to the feed, food, pharmaceutical and personal care industries. The company has a long tradition as a pioneer in the discovery of new products, new formulations and attractive applications for all industry segments. For further company information please visit www.dsmnutritionalproducts.com DSM DSM is active in nutritional and pharma ingredients, performance materials and industrial chemicals. The company creates innovative products and services that help improve the quality of life. DSM’s products are used in a wide range of end markets and applications such as human and animal nutrition and health, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, automotive and transport, coatings, housing and electrics & electronics (E&E). DSM’s strategy, named Vision 2010 – Building on Strengths, focuses on accelerating profitable and innovative growth of the company’s specialties portfolio. Market-driven growth, innovation and increased presence in emerging economies are key drivers of this strategy. The group has annual sales of over € 8 billion and employs some 22,000 people worldwide. DSM ranks among the global leaders in many of its fields. The company is headquartered in the Netherlands, with locations in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. NEWSLETTER 1/2006 3 SIGHT AND LIFE Editorial Micronutrient deficiencies are will gain momentum during 2006, largely responsible for maternal as the World Bank has given and infant mortality in developing malnutrition top priority in a new countries. Population-based ap- report ‘Repositioning Nutrition as proaches to control deficiencies Central to Development’. Malnu- in vitamin A, iron, folate and other trition has been known for a long micronutrients do, however, need time to increase poverty, and the to be based on scientific evidence. fight against malnutrition is crucial One example of a high-quality for economic growth. The World community research program is Bank cautions that malnutrition the JiVitA Bangladesh Project in poor countries may cost them (page 10). In January, I had an up to 3% of their yearly GDP and opportunity to join Alfred Sommer, mean children losing more than Keith West, Parul Christian and 10% of their lifetime income po- Alain Labrique of the Johns Hop- tential. “Put nutrition at the center kins Bloomberg School of Public of development so that a wide Health on a trip to ‘JiVitA-land’ in range of economic and social The time for talking Bangladesh, and to see for myself improvements that depend on nu- should be over a very dedicated local team doing trition can be realized”, the report outstanding research. says. The report also tells us that The year 2005 was a year of big malnutrition has its most damag- speeches by the world’s leaders Undernutrition and micronutrient ing effect between conception in the fight against poverty in the deficiencies are still prevalent in and the first two years in the life developing world, so it follows that developing countries, even as of a child. During this early period 2006 should be a year of action. Western-type food habits and malnutrition causes irreversible By coincidence, this year we are sedentary lifestyles are increas- damage to health and brain devel- celebrating the 20th anniversary ingly being adopted. This leads to opment, increasing school failure of SIGHT AND LIFE, and action overweight and chronic diseases. and reducing work performance. is exactly what we expect of our- Micronesia is a typical example of Moreover, at this early stage in life selves, within the realms of our this dual burden. The increasing malnutrition programs the risk for possibilities. We will align our problems with overweight and obesity and the chronic diseases activities to our new vision (to diabetes and the concomitant vi- of adulthood. The report also combat all types of micronutrient tamin A deficiency are featured in suggests solutions for tackling deficiencies), and we aim to serve a humorous film from Micronesia malnutrition and highlights that your needs even better than be- ‘Going Yellow’, communicated by many developing countries have fore. To this end we are seeking Lois Englberger in this edition of made impressive progress in your feedback on SIGHT AND the Newsletter (page 31). spite of economic setbacks and LIFE. This edition of the Newslet- poor governance. ter contains a questionnaire which The contribution by Jane Badham we kindly ask you to fill in and re- (page 17) on South African con- Is there hope that the time for turn to us. Furthermore, we shall sumers’ knowledge of vitamins talking is over and that action will in future be focusing on health and minerals and food fortification follow? As far as SIGHT AND issues rather than on specific highlights what we often neglect: LIFE is concerned, I am confident vitamin or mineral deficiencies. well-designed communication that we are on the right track. But One of the most important health strategies. Communication also besides sound science and eco- issues is anemia, which affects brings me to the SIGHT AND LIFE nomic incentives this will require more that 2 billion people world- Drawing Contest for children to good communication strategies wide. A SIGHT AND LIFE manual increase awareness of Nutrition to make programs really suc- on ‘Nutritional Anemia’, address- for Health (page 48). Children do cessful. ing contributing factors other than have excellent communication iron, is in preparation. Top experts skills and get down to the nitty- from different fields have agreed gritty immediately. Please help us to contribute chapters. You will to make the contest a success by find these and other examples of advertising the competition. our planned activities for 2006, as well as the Annual Report 2005, There is good reason to think that on page 49 of the Newsletter. the fight against hidden hunger SIGHT AND LIFE 4 NEWSLETTER 1/2006 Lycopene intake and prostate cancer risk Nikki A Ford and John W Erdman Jr., Division of Nutritional Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign Introduction The red pigment lycopene, the most abundant carotenoid in tomatoes, is also found in lesser amounts in guava, pink grapefruit, papaya, and watermelon. Upon consumption, it accumulates in tissues including liver, adrenals, testes, and prostate (1). Lycopene is a 40 carbon atom, acyclic, open chain polyisoprenoid with 11 conjugated double bonds (2). All-trans lycopene is the predomi- nant isomer found in plants, but cis isomers are the form most The dominating red pigment of tomatoes is lycopene. At a vegetable market commonly found in human tissues in Bangladesh. suggesting preferential absorp- tion of cis isomers (3). of prostate cancer. This paper will Tomatoes also contain a variety review the composition of toma- of carotenoids in addition to lyco- Nearly all men will develop some toes and the epidemiological and pene. While lycopene comprises form of prostate cancer if they experimental evidence regarding approximately 60–64% of the live long enough (4). With a 32% the association between lyco- total carotenoids found in tomato mortality rate, prostate cancer is pene and tomato consumption products, phytoene, phytofluene, the second most abundant cancer and prostate cancer risk. Finally, neurosporene and γ-carotene are world-wide (5). North America potential mechanisms of action the next most abundant caroten- and Australia, along with parts and metabolites and oxidative oids (Figure 2). of South America and Europe, products of lycopene will be dis- have the highest incidence rates cussed. One in vitro study suggests that of prostate cancer (Table 1). Its lycopene works synergistically with occurrence is also high in parts of Tomato composition other tomato components to exert Africa, and Central America.