Erik says he cannot see the appeal of peanut butter. Kids in Sweden never had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches growing up, he says.
I, however, was raised on peanut butter, taking sandwiches in my school lunch that ran the gamut from peanut butter and jelly to peanut butter and whatever was in the house — cucumber, coconut, banana, celery, green pepper, mayonnaise.
Peanut butter is high in protein and recommended in pregnancy, which is why Suzanne got back into it when she was expecting.
Today, as Tracy Boyer writes at the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, nonprofits are adding extra nutrients to peanut butter and getting the inexpensive protein-rich food into the tummies of undernourished children in poor countries.
“Deep in the mountains of southwestern Honduras, Maria Digna Ramos Mendoza spoon-feeds Plumpy’Doz, a peanut-based supplement, to her infant daughter.
“Four other hungry children watch while either sitting on the dirt floor of their one-room hut or swinging from a hammock. Chickens, dogs and rats roam around the cluttered room, scavenging for their next meal.
“Mendoza is part of a research study being conducted by professors and students at [the University of North Carolina], part of the University’s larger focus on international health. Researchers aim to improve the growth and development of young infants in rural Honduras.
“The Mathile Institute for the Advancement of Human Nutrition, a philanthropic organization founded by former Iams CEO and board chairman Clayton L. Mathile, funds the year-long project [2009].
“The study is also in conjunction with the U.S. nonprofit organization Shoulder to Shoulder, an organization founded and directed by UNC School of Medicine faculty member Dr. Jeffrey Heck. …
UNC alumna Yanire Estrada [was recruited] “to lead a team of 11 local and U.S. health promoters to provide educational sessions for the mothers and assess each infant’s health on a monthly basis.
“Estrada’s team evaluates nearly 300 infants from 18 villages in both a control and intervention group. Heck insisted that both groups receive some beneficial subsidy for participating in the study, so every mother obtains food vouchers in addition to the educational sessions. …
“The intervention group receives Plumpy’Doz, a fortified lipid-based peanut butter spread, packed with essential nutrients including zinc, iron and vitamin A. The supplement is given to the infants three times a day in addition to their normal diet. …
UNC public health professor Margaret Bentley “noticed the easy access to cheap, packaged snacks and soft drinks that exists in North Carolina also exists in Santa Lucia. Both are troubling, as Honduran mothers feed this junk food to their infants, causing chronic diarrhea and sickness.
“ ‘I don’t think about working overseas as working over there (with) no connection to North Carolina,’ Bentley said. ‘Any problem that we have in North Carolina has a mirror image in another place.’ …
“Back in the mud hut, Mendoza stares lovingly as her infant begins eating Plumpy’Doz straight from the jar. Just six months ago, her daughter’s fragility deeply concerned her, but now she prides herself as she watches the color return to her child’s face.
“ ‘People stop me to ask what I am feeding my child because she is beginning to look so pretty,’ Mendoza said. ‘She is developing extremely well now.’ ”
More.
Photograph: Pulitzer Center
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
I am a friend of Erik and Suzanne and work in the company that provides all the vitamin and mineral nutrients to PlumpyNuts or Plumpy’Doz. It is a very good nutrition solution for the malnourished population who not only need nutrients but also calories … it has been widely used in Africa, Central America and South Asia.
There are many challenges in these less developed countries but if we have limited money, investing in nutrition and education will definitely bring the best outcome in terms of GDP growth and people development. But donation can not be the long term sustainable solution … we have to create a business model which combines the unemployment there with the business opportunity: maybe utilize the local women to sell this product at cost or even below cost; or develop some local nutrition products which do not have to change their local diet, utilize the harvest or staple good whatever they have.
Appreciate Suzanne’s Mom to promote this initiative and will follow up your blog continuously. Cheers and nice day!
Grace
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Grace, many thanks for your thoughtful comments. Suzanne and Erik told me about your work (and also about how you have traveled to every nook and cranny in the U.S.!), and I thought the peanut butter solution was interesting. It also generated a funny discussion with Erik about what he thinks of peanut butter!
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