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Monday, November 22, 2010

Food For Thought: Thanksgiving Sweet Potato helps to alleviate world malnutrition?!

Hi there, everyone, Happy Thanksgiving! We hope everyone will have an awesome Thanksgiving break, but malnutrition in the world does not cease.

This week Food for Thought will share with you a Thanksgiving special blog post on one of the staple in Thanksgiving meal besides Turkey. ;)



According to McClatchy newspaper, agricultural researchers have discovered that orange sweet potatoes, rich in zinc and iron, may help improve the immunity system of malnourished children.

Traditional African sweet potatoes are not orange; they are red outside and white inside. These potatoes do not provide sufficient amount of beta-carotene,which helps the body to convert vitamin A.

The lack of vitamin A would like to blindness in children.
"Experts estimate that vitamin A deficiency blinds 500,000 preschool children globally each year, and that about two-thirds of them die within months of going blind because the deficiency destroys their immune system and makes them vulnerable to diseases."
Agricultural researchers have demonstrated success in an alternative cultivation of sweet potatoes to make them "more orange".


Like plumpy'nut®, orange sweet potatoes could help nourish children with malnutrition.

And how do we get Plumpy'nut®?
By getting involved with WILL WORK FOR FOOD!

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Happy Thanksgiving! And Happy Orange sweet potatoes! =)