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Interviews | Robert E Black, professor and chairman at the department of international health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health interviewed by Rema Nagarajan
Robert E Black, professor and chairman at the department of international health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health interviewed by Rema Nagarajan

Robert E Black, professor and chairman at the department of international health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health interviewed by Rema Nagarajan

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published Published on Jul 8, 2013   modified Modified on Jul 8, 2013
-The Times of India


Robert E Black is the lead author of the Lancet series on Maternal and Child Nutrition as well as professor and chairman at the department of international health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. As the 2013 Lancet series is launched, Black spoke with Rema Nagarajan about its approach to tackling malnutrition, controversies over reach-ing out to commercial food interests - and vital problems causing malnutrition in India:

* The Lancet series faces criticism over apparently pushing product-based intervention to address malnutrition, increasing commercialisation of the issue. Your response?

I don't know where that comes from - we don't say anything about any company or commercial products. We talk about improving diets. Foods produced locally are perfectly acceptable. In fact, we prefer that. We are not endorsing any product.

We have talked about breastfeeding, complementary feeding and the diet of children in the six to 23 months age group.

* But don't you recommend the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) initiative in the series, which includes a business alliance comprising some of the biggest food companies?

We do recommend SUN as we think SUN is playing a constructive role in many countries to tackle malnutrition. There is a case for nutrients that are missing which supplements or fortification could provide through products - there is nothing new in this. These interventions are already happening across the world.

* However, a lack of nutrition is often not about missing vitamins but a lack of food - why isn't ensuring food security an important intervention?

Food distribution is key. Most of the population does not get a proper diet. There is a difference between just getting something to eat and getting a diet of nutrients and protein that are needed.

A country could be food-secure, just as India is food-secure, but the food could be distributed badly or not distributed affordably to the poor. The stunting prevalence among the poorest 20% of the Indian population as compared to the richest shows a huge gap, among the widest gaps in any country - this shows poor distribution of food.

We talk of nutrition security which goes beyond plain food security. We do say that a solution has to be about reducing poverty among other things.

* Why is ready-to-use thera-peutic food (RUTF) recommended when traditional and locally prepared foods have been shown to be just as effective?

We do not talk of a specific kind of RUTF product. We need certain kinds of foods to treat severe acute malnutrition at the community level. If there is locally produced food that is nutritionally adequate, we do say, use it. As long as it has the right balance of protein and nutrients, it can be effective.

This is not about a particular food product but about an approach.

* The series does recommend involving the private sector to solve nutrition problems. Is it healthy to engage with an industry known for repeated violations?

Well, the commercial food industry has had violations in the past. We have tried to create a balance. We have tried to be careful about how we discuss food companies being involved.

But the reality is that the food industry reaches every household - it is not sensible to ignore them. The challenge is to find a way to incentivise and regulate them, so that they can contribute to solving the problem.

The Times of India, 8 July, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/interviews
/Robert-E-Black-Stunting-among-the-poorest-and-richest-Ind
ians-shows-a-huge-gap/articleshow/20960667.cms?

Image Courtesy: http://www.hopkinsglobalhealth.org/researchers/profile/821
/Black/Robert


The Times of India, 8 July, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/interviews/Robert-E-Black-Stunting-among-the-poorest-and-richest-Indians-shows-a-huge-gap/articleshow/20960667.cms?


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