Animal Sourced Foods and Child Stunting

50 Pages Posted: 9 Jan 2018

See all articles by Derek Headey

Derek Headey

CGIAR - Poverty, Health and Nutrition Division

Kalle Hirvonen

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

John Hoddinott

Cornell University

Date Written: December 23, 2017

Abstract

Stunting affects 160 million pre-school children around the world, and imposes significant costs on a child’s health, cognitive development, schooling and economic performance. Stunting in early childhood has been linked to poor dietary diversity, notably low intake of animal-sourced foods (ASFs) rich in high quality protein and other growth-stimulating nutrients. Surprisingly, however, very little economic research has focused on ASFs and child growth. In this paper we redress this omission through an analysis of 112,553 children aged 6-23 months from 46 countries. We first document distinctive patterns of ASF consumption among children in different regions, particularly highly variable patterns of dairy consumption, low consumption of eggs and meat, and surprisingly frequent consumption of fish in several poor regions of Africa and Asia. We then examine how ASF consumption is associated with child stunting in multivariate models saturated with control variables.

Keywords: animal products, nutrition, child nutrition, malnutrition, nutritional disorders, livestock, fisheries, agricultural policies, food policies, food consumption, developing countries, protein intake, animal-sourced foods, dietary diversity, stunting

JEL Classification: Q18, O15, I15

Suggested Citation

Headey, Derek and Hirvonen, Kalle and Hoddinott, John, Animal Sourced Foods and Child Stunting (December 23, 2017). IFPRI Discussion Paper 1695, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3098491

Derek Headey (Contact Author)

CGIAR - Poverty, Health and Nutrition Division ( email )

Washington, DC 20005
United States

Kalle Hirvonen

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) ( email )

1201 Eye St, NW,
Washington, DC 20005
United States

John Hoddinott

Cornell University ( email )

Ithaca, NY 14853
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.cornell.edu/

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