Stunted African toddlers digest and obtain energy from energy-dense thick sorghum porridge.

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.