التقنيات المستمدة من المجال النووي من أجل جودة النظام الغذائي: الوكالة تحتفل بيوم أفريقيا الحادي عشر للأمن الغذائي والتغذوي

Diet quality – the ability of food to provide adequate and readily bioavailable nutrients for bodily functions – is a determinant of nutritional status. The IAEA has developed a suite of isotopic and nuclear-related techniques to evaluate various dimensions of nutrition, including breastfeeding patterns, body composition and nutrient digestion and bioavailability. The data from these techniques can be used to develop nutritional interventions to improve children’s nutrition and health, enhance policy formulation, and strengthen countries’ capacity to meet their development goals.

“Designing effective interventions to assess the complex relation between infections, changing food systems and nutrition and health outcomes requires that we have accurate and precise tools to generate the needed evidence base,” said Victor Owino, nutrition specialist at the IAEA's Division of Human Health. “Stable isotope techniques can help to accurately and non-invasively measure diet quality and related nutritional indicators toward Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063 targets.” Agenda 2063 is the African Union’s strategic framework for inclusive and sustainable development.  

One of these methods is the deuterium dilution technique, based on water molecules that include the deuterium isotope of hydrogen (²H₂O). When these labelled water molecules are swallowed by the participants, they will mix with body water. Their concentration is then measured in the participants’ urine or saliva samples, allowing experts to calculate their total amount of fat free mass, based on which they can estimate their fat mass and check it against established ranges for healthy fat-fat free ratio for their age group.   

Though stable isotope applications have been utilized in many countries, wider adoption across Africa is challenged by high costs and the need for trained staff. “Use of technology, like the stable isotope tools developed by the IAEA, is pioneering and its use should be further scaled up in Africa,” Lokosang said. “This kind of technology provides immediate results, and this data is valuable, not only for decision makers but for the person being measured to be advised right away in terms of habits and consumption.”

The IAEA encourages the use of isotope techniques to accurately measure indicators associated with the double burden of malnutrition. It offers support to countries through technical cooperation and coordinated research projects to enhance research and development on isotope techniques, and to build capacity for the adoption and use of these techniques to design and evaluate interventions. IAEA support includes training, expert advice, provision of equipment, sample analysis, data management, and analysis to enable the results to be interpreted and used by nutritionists and health professionals.

Read more how the IAEA is addressing childhood obesity with the help of nuclear technology.