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Aims and Objectives of this course:
This course aims to improve the knowledge of healthcare professionals in the importance of the roles of fatty acids in maternal, foetal and paediatric health. By the end of the course delegates will:
Have a greater understanding of the role of fatty acids in neurodevelopment
Recognise the importance of fatty acids in clinical diseases/ illnesses
Have a better understanding of nutrition and behaviour
Have an up to date knowledge of fatty acids in the nutritional management of metabolic/ genetic diseases
Be aware of the importance of establishing treatment plans and referral pathways in specific neurodisabilities
A popular view on food shortages is that the problem is one of distribution of food. Another view favoured by the World Bank and the like is that the solution to poverty and malnutrition is improving earning capacity.
I do not believe either of these notions is true.
From my experience of working in Uganda for example I would say that the Kwashiorkor was not due to lack of distribution but to lack of education and the recent reverence for the plantain, yams or sweet potatoes. None are indigenous to Africa. “Plant one offshoot of a plantain tree the day the child is born and with it and its progeny you have food for life” we were told. These crops grow so easily in the warm climate with ample rainfall. The plantain is a high carbohydrate food so it does not give enough calories for weaning the infant. It is essential fatty acid and protein deficient but has stacks of carbohydrate.
Janet Street-Porter and the New Poverty - Independent on Sunday May 4th 08
This is the full text of a letter, a shortened version of which was published in the INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, 4th May 2008.
Sir,
Janet Street-Porter (in her article on the rise in debt 27th April) is right, the poorest suffer most from debt; it worsens the poverty which damages the health and education of their babies. She pin points a cause of new poverty, preventable had Government acted. We wish to draw attention to another and rising cause of poverty which also could have been prevented. The roots of intergenerational poverty are in poor maternal diets, low birthweights and poor brain development at conception and in the womb creating the cycle of deprivation.
Low birthweight is the single most powerful predictor of children at risk to chronic ill health, poor brain development leading to poor school achievement, mental ill health, behavioural disorders and hence lacking ability to acquire skills that would take them and their families out of the poverty trap.
In 1953 to 1973, 5.6% of children were born at low birthweights. The 2005 UNICEF report has the UK at 8%, far higher than any Western European nation and