Abstract
Rice bran contains essential nutrients, antioxidants, and bioactives with anti-inflammatory and diarrheal protective properties important for infants. This 6-month randomized controlled trial investigated the effects of heat-stabilized rice bran supplementation during Malian infant weaning. Fifty healthy 6-month-old infants were randomized to a rice bran intervention (N = 25) or non-intervention control group (N = 25). Intervention infants received dose-escalating rice bran supplementation for 6 months (1–5 g/day). Monthly infant dried blood spot and anthropometric measurements were collected. Dried blood spot metabolite abundances were compared monthly according to diet for six months. Supplementation resulted in favorable weight-for-age and weight-for-length z-score changes. Non-targeted dried blood spot-based metabolomics identified 796 metabolites, of which 33% had significant fold differences between groups (7–12 months). Lipids and amino acids represented 70.6% of the metabolites identified. Rice bran supplementation during infant weaning significantly modulated the metabolites involved in antioxidant defenses and with neuroactive properties including reduced glutathione, glycine, glutamate, cysteinylglycine, tryptophan betaine, and choline. These findings support rice bran as a weaning ingredient to meet infant nutritional requirements and with the potential to reduce oxidative stress and improve cognitive outcomes. This study provides evidence for dried blood spots as a cost-effective tool to detect infant biomarkers of nutritional and metabolic status.
Highlights
The first 1000 days of life constitute a critical window when poor nutrition can negatively impact growth and development, cognition, and immune system function, among other factors
This trial investigated the effects of heat-stabilized rice bran supplementation on length-for-age (LAZ), weight-for-age (WAZ), and weight-for-length (WLZ) z-scores in weaning infants from 6 to 12 months of age, controlling for sex and neighborhood (Table 2; Supplementary Figure S1)
No significant Length-for-age Z-score (LAZ) differences were seen from baseline among rice bran-fed infants at age 12 months compared to control
Summary
The first 1000 days of life constitute a critical window when poor nutrition can negatively impact growth and development, cognition, and immune system function, among other factors. These are health outcomes that can be irreversible and have lasting impacts into adulthood [1,2,3,4]. On the other hand, indicates severe nutrient deficiency based on a child’s weight for length. Both result when a child is −2 standard deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards median [5]. Of children under 5, roughly 41% of the estimated 149.2 million stunted children and 27% of the 45.4 million wasting children are in Africa [6]
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