Billions of Humans Are Dangerously Deficient in Essential Nutrients – Study

A study published last month found that billions of humans across the globe are dangerously deficient in important vitamins and minerals.

“On the basis of estimates of nutrient intake from food (excluding fortification and supplementation), more than 5 billion people do not consume enough iodine (68% of the global population), vitamin E (67%), and calcium (66%). More than 4 billion people do not consume enough iron (65%), riboflavin (55%), folate (54%), and vitamin C (53%). Within the same country and age groups, estimated inadequate intakes were higher for women than for men for iodine, vitamin B12, iron, and selenium and higher for men than for women for magnesium, vitamin B6, zinc, vitamin C, vitamin A, thiamin, and niacin,” the study stated in the ‘Findings’ section of the Summary.

Infowars.com reports: The researchers detailed how lacking these critical micronutrients affects human health.

“Iron deficiency is the most common cause of anaemia, leading to impaired cognition and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable blindness globally, affecting mostly children and pregnant women. Both vitamin A and zinc have a crucial role in immunity, especially for populations facing a high burden of infectious diseases. Folate is needed early in pregnancy to reduce the risk of stillbirths and neural tube defects, and iodine is essential for pregnant and breastfeeding women because of its role in fetal and child cognitive development,” the study said in the ‘Introduction’ section. “Deficiencies in these and other micronutrients collectively contribute to a large burden of morbidity and mortality.”

The researchers estimated the global nutrient deficiencies for various age groups of both genders.

“We estimated intake inadequacies for 15 micronutrients (appendix p 1) across 34 subnational age–sex groups in 185 countries. This approach required understanding nutrient intake and requirement distributions for each subnational population globally (figure 1). We developed these subnational nutrient intake distributions using estimates of distribution scale (ie, intake median) from the GDD and distribution shape (ie, intake variability) from the nutriR database,” the study said in the ‘Methods’ section.

The results show that, at least for some micronutrients, the majority of the world is deficient in them.

“Estimates of inadequate intake were generally high (figure 2) and were especially common for iodine (5·1 billion people; 68% of the population), vitamin E (5·0 billion people; 67% of the population), calcium (5·0 billion people; 66% of the population), and iron (4·9 billion people; 65% of the population). Niacin had the lowest estimate of inadequate intake (1·7 billion people; 22% of the population), followed by thiamin (2·2 billion people; 30% of the population) and magnesium (2·4 billion people; 31% of the population; figure 2). A few countries had estimated intake inadequacies that diverged from the general patterns. For example, in India, estimated inadequate intakes of riboflavin, folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 were especially high; Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo had high inadequate niacin intakes; and Russia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan had high inadequate selenium intakes (figure 2),” the study said in the ‘Results’ section.

The study also included an interesting map listing various micronutrient deficiencies and their geographic-specific prevalence.

“Calcium intake inadequacy was highest in countries in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and east Asia and the Pacific (figure 3). Intake inadequacy was high across all age–sex groups in these countries, but especially among people aged 10–30 years. Only countries in North America, Europe, and central Asia had a consistently low prevalence of inadequate calcium intake (figure 3). Low prevalence of inadequate iodine intake was observed only in Europe and Canada (figures 2, 3) and, for vitamin E, mainly in Pacific Island countries (figures 2, 3). For riboflavin and vitamin B12, high prevalences of inadequate intakes were common only in countries in south Asia and Africa (figures 2, 3),” the study said in the ‘Results’ section.

There was also not ‘gender equality’ with the types of nutrient deficiencies either.

“Globally, the prevalence of inadequate intakes was consistently higher for females than for males in the same country and age group for iodine, vitamin B12, iron, and selenium (figure 4). The prevalence was higher for females than for males in most regions for calcium, riboflavin, vitamin E, and folate. Conversely, the prevalence of inadequate intakes was consistently higher for males than for females in the same country and age group for magnesium, vitamin B6, zinc, vitamin C, vitamin A, thiamin, and niacin (figure 4),” the study said in the ‘Results’ section.

The researchers provided more charts which detailed these deficiencies.

One notable point on the research is that it does not take into account supplementation.

“The estimates we present are of inadequate nutrient intake and do not include information on fortification or supplementation. In essence, this means that our inadequate intake estimates are likely to overestimate risk for some key nutrients (eg, iodine) in particular locations. Nonetheless, supplementation and fortification with many of these micronutrients is uncommon globally,” the study said in the ‘Discussion’ section.