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Undernutrition, such as stunting and underweight, is a major public health concern, which requires multi-sectoral attention. Diet plays a key role in growth and should optimally supply all required nutrients to support the growth. While millets (defined broadly to include sorghum) are traditional foods, and climate smart nutritious crops, which are grown across Africa and Asia, they have not been mainstreamed like rice, wheat, and maize. Diversifying staples with millets can potentially provide more macro and micro nutrients, compared to the mainstream crops. However, there is little known scientific evidence to prove millets' efficacy on growth. Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to collate evidence of the benefits of millets in improving the growth of children. Eight eligible randomized feeding trials were included in the meta-analysis. Results from the randomized effect model showed a significant effect ( p < 0.05) of millet-based diets on mean height (+28.2%) ( n = 8), weight ( n = 9) (+26%), mid upper arm circumference ( n = 5) (+39%) and chest circumference ( n = 5) (+37%) in comparison to regular rice-based diets over for the period of 3 months to 4.5 years, which was based on largely substituting rice with millets. When an enhanced and diverse diet was served, replacing rice with millet had only minimal growth improvement on chest circumference ( p < 0.05). The quality assessment using GRADE shows that the evidence used for this systematic review and meta-analysis had moderate quality, based on eight scoring criteria. These results demonstrate the value of adding millet as the staple for undernourished communities. Further understanding of the efficacy of millets on growth in a wider range of diets is important to develop appropriate dietary programs and improve the nutritional status of various age groups across Africa and Asia.

Some of the biggest global issues are poor diets, environmental concerns, and poverty. To tackle malnutrition, fast-growing lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, environmental concerns like climate change, land and water scarcity, and poverty, we need to incorporate dietary and on-farm diversity. These issues should be treated in unison, but also with more holistic solutions. Mainstreaming "traditional" Smart Foods back as staples across Africa and Asia is part of the "Smart Food" approach. Smart Foods are food items that fulfill the criteria of being good for you, the planet, and the farmer. Sorghum and millet were selected as the first Smart Foods and a participatory fun-filled approach was adopted to create awareness, to develop culturally acceptable products, and to bring about behavior change to improve adoption, dietary diversity, and nutritional status. Smart Food piloted these activities in Myanmar to understand its potential on the consumer market. Smart Food was promoted in different countries through social media competitions in Mali, cooking shows in Kenya and India, recipe development by popular chefs in Paris and London, as well as school feeding programs in Tanzania and India, and an international millet festival in Niger. As a case study in Myanmar, we compared two approaches to introduce Smart Food - one which directly introduces new products and one which takes a culturally sensitive participatory and inclusive approach. The later approach resulted in the development of 27 recipes, in contrast with the former approach, which accepted only 3 of the 13 products tested. The 27 products developed locally exhibited superior nutrient values compared to usual rice porridge. The Smart Food initiative is demonstrating the potential to make a difference in society and for the environment, thus contributing to a major impact on leading global issues such as dietary diversity, improved nutritional status, and adapting to climate change., (© 2020 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

BACKGROUND: The present study examined the potential for 'Smart Food' with respect to contributing to the Sustainable Development Goal 2 of ending malnutrition by 2030, using a small‐scale capacity building case study in Oe Be Village, Myingyan district, Mandalay region, Myanmar. Within the study site, refined white rice is the major staple, followed by vegetables and animal source food in inadequate quantities. The protein intake in this particular dry zone community meets only 50% of the daily requirement and even less for those children aged less than 23 months. Therefore, to determine the acceptance and opportunity for legumes and millets which are produced locally, nutritious formulations were introduced for various age groups. In addition, a sensory evaluation of the recipes was conducted to test the acceptance of the nutritious products. RESULTS: Two weeks of the inclusion of millets and pigeonpea in the diets of children aged 6–23 months had a positive impact on wasting, stunting and underweight (P = 0.002, 0.014 and 0.023, respectively). Moreover, the acceptability of these new food products by the children was found to be high. These results indicate an unexplored opportunity for specific millets rich in iron, zinc and calcium, as well as for pigeonpea rich in protein, if prepared in a culturally acceptable way. CONCLUSION: The impact and acceptability of this small scale and short‐term intervention indicate the potential for Smart Food products in filling the nutrition gap arising from the traditional food consumption habits in the dry zones of Myanmar. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]