The effect of a supplementary multipurpose food on the growth and nutritional status of schoolchildren

Abstract

1. A feeding experiment extending over a period of 5 months was carried out on forty-six girls aged 4–12 years in an orphanage in Mysore to assess the value of supplementing their poor vegetarian diet with 2 oz. daily of a multipurpose food composed of groundnut flour and Bengal-gram flour, fortified with certain vitamins and calcium phosphate. 2. The children were paired according to initial height and weight and the members of each pair allotted at random to the control and experimental groups. 3. Values for weight, height, nutritional status, haemoglobin level and red-cell count were obtained at the beginning and end of the experiment, for subjects in the control and experimental groups. 4. There was a significant increase in height, weight, red-cell count and haemoglobin levels of the subjects receiving the supplement. 5. Eighteen children in the experimental group improved in nutritional status, whereas none in the control group showed improvement. On the other hand, thirteen children in the control group showed deterioration whereas none in the experimental group showed any. © 1957, The Nutrition Society. All rights reserved.