Nutrients found in breast milk can promote the healthy development of infants both physically and cognitively, but malnutrition can impact the composition of breast milk, causing some key nutrients to be unavailable. Not all infant formulas contain these nutrients, and in countries such as India, which ranks 94th out of 107 countries on the Global Hunger Index, widespread malnutrition can lead to an epidemic of infant undernourishment. Researchers at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Kolkata, along with domestic and international collaborators, have found a potential solution for this problem in 12 critically endangered rice varieties that contain important fatty acids for early cognitive development.
The nutritional value of these rare rice landraces, cultivated by just a few farmers in India, was determined through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of a total of 94 rice varieties. Twelve out of the 94 varieties were found to contain significant levels of important long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids such as arachidonic acid (ARA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which are typically found in the breast milk of healthy mothers and are not found in more common high-yielding rice varieties.
While health regulatory agencies require a minimum amount of DHA in infant formula, ARA is not always required despite being a key contributor to cognitive development in the first 6 months of life, according to the researchers. The authors suggest that traditional indigenous rice landraces like those analyzed in their study can be used to supplement the diet of infants or be added to the diet of mothers to help produce more nutrient-rich breast milk. This paper was published in Current Science.
While India produces about 20% of the world’s rice, more common varieties selected for their high yield are less nutritious than many folk varieties, the authors said. The researchers urged conservation of these endangered landraces and added that encouraging more farmers to grow these varieties can offer better access to critical nutrients.
Photo: Farmers in Assam, India plant seedlings in paddies. A new study says endangered folk rice varieties in India are more nutritious compared to high-yielding varieties. Credit: Diganta Talukdar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and resized