Nutrition

More than half of child deaths worldwide stem from preventable causes, such as adverse effects from malnutrition. A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Davis, finds that child mortality significantly drops when children receive nutritional supplements rich in vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids.

A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Davis, shows that caregiving programs are five times more effective than nutrition programs in supporting smarter, not just taller, children in low- and middle-income countries.

In an orange grove outside Exeter, California, workers climb aluminum ladders to pick fruit with expert speed. California produces 80 percent of the nation’s fresh oranges, tangerines and lemons, most of it in small Central California communities like these.

Economists and nutritionists advise fortifying nation’s wheat supply

She aspires to provide nutritious food to every malnourished child; he wants to do so as efficiently as possible. Together, they and their UC Davis team and in-country collaborators have won global recognition for their proposals to help boost Haiti out of poverty.

To most of us, HDLs, or high-density lipoproteins, are simply tiny, cholesterol-rich particles that act as the biochemical “good guys” in the battle against clogged arteries and coronary heart disease.

But a team led by University of California, Davis, researchers found that not all HDLs are alike. The amounts and specific structure of complex sugars called glycans in these particles can powerfully influence the body’s inflammatory and immune responses.

Supplements improve kid’s health, here and abroad

Moms and dads caught in the frenzy of raising little ones probably don’t realize it, but the first 1,000 days of their children’s lives truly are “golden” — precious, that is, in their implications for future growth and development.

Researcher improves global health by fortifying common ingredients.

Reina Engle-Stone was halfway through her biology degree at Cornell University when she discovered global nutrition.

Her introduction was a nutritional epidemiology class, and almost immediately she was hooked. “You could take biology and apply it to other things. I thought, this is great, this is what I want to do,” she says.

New machine simulates human digestion to improve nutrition.

How do humans digest food? It’s a complicated question, with no easy answer. But in a food engineering lab at UC Davis, a mechanical digestive system is churning out information that may help solve the age-old mystery.

 Designed and built by engineer and food scientist Gail Bornhorst, the novel device is providing clues that could help people make better decisions about when to eat, what to eat and how to prepare food to meet their own personal nutritional needs.