Peer-reviewed article
Stunted African toddlers digest and obtain energy from energy-dense thick sorghum porridge.
Fatimata Cisse, Clay Swackhamer, Hawa G Diall, Atossa Rahmanifar, Mariam Sylla et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study compared how stunted and healthy toddlers in Mali digest different types of sorghum porridge, including traditional thin porridge and energy-dense thick versions. Using a breath test method with labeled starch, researchers found that both stunted and healthy children could digest and obtain energy from all three porridge types equally well. The stunted toddlers had slightly slower digestion kinetics for the thick porridge but ultimately absorbed similar amounts of carbohydrates. This suggests that thickened, energy-dense porridges could be a viable way to increase calorie intake for malnourished children.
Key points
- Both stunted and healthy toddlers digested traditional sorghum porridge equally well with no significant differences
- Stunted children had slower starch digestion kinetics with thick porridge but achieved similar overall starch digestion as healthy children
- Thick energy-dense porridge supplied digestible carbohydrates to both stunted and healthy toddlers
- Gastric emptying rate did not differ between stunted and healthy groups
- Thinned calorie-dense porridge was also digestible and comparable to other porridge types
Limitations
The study had a small sample size (24 per group) and was conducted in one setting in Mali, so results may not generalize to other African populations or contexts. The study only measured digestion capacity and did not evaluate long-term nutritional outcomes or weight gain in stunted children consuming these porridges regularly.
Abstract
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Increasing the energy density of porridges could help meet the needs of moderately malnourished, stunted children. However, it is not clear whether stunted toddlers can adequately digest and obtain energy from energy-dense porridges with thick texture. A clinical study was conducted in Bamako, Mali, using 13C-labeled substrates and serial breath sampling to determine whether stunted toddlers differed from healthy toddlers in their capacity to digest thick and thin sorghum porridges. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Experimental porridges, including a traditional porridge (control), a starch-enriched calorie-dense thick porridge, and an α-amylase-thinned calorie-dense porridge, were fed to stunted (n = 24) and healthy (n = 24) 18-30-month toddlers. Breath test results were expressed as Percent Dose Recovery and curve fit using the Weibull function to determine the kinetics of starch digestion. RESULTS: The stunted and healthy toddlers were able to digest and oxidize the starch from traditional porridge equally well, with no statistically significant differences between the kinetic parameters of the two groups. After consumption of thickened porridge, healthy toddlers had slightly faster starch digestion kinetics with PDR curves rising more rapidly (p < 0.05) and peaking earlier in the postprandial period (p < 0.01) for healthy individuals than for stunted individuals, yet these groups did not have differences in the overall extent of starch digestion, as their final CPDR values were not significantly different. Gastric emptying rate did not differ significantly between the healthy and stunted groups. CONCLUSION: Overall, we found that thick porridge supplied digestible carbohydrates to stunted and healthy toddlers, as well as thinned calorie-dense porridge.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Feeding energy-dense thick sorghum porridge (starch-enriched) compared to traditional thin porridge and enzyme-thinned calorie-dense porridge
- Population
- Stunted toddlers (n=24) and healthy toddlers (n=24) aged 18-30 months in Bamako, Mali
Key finding
Stunted and healthy toddlers showed no significant differences in final carbohydrate digestion and recovery (CPDR values) for thick porridge