Feeding malnourished children with corn tortilla fortified with amino acids in Yucatán, México

Caloric and protein malnutrition in children has led to the development of programs that design and distribute nutritionally enhanced products in México. That is why this study was conducted in order to evaluate the effect of consumption of corn tortillas fortified with lysine and tryptophan, on growth of malnourished preschool children in two rural areas of Yucatan. An original population of 156 pre-school children originated from two rural communities, Canicab and Ticopó, with ages between 36 and 71 months was selected. Two groups of 21 children each were chosen. They ate tortillas for twelve months: fortified with lysine and tryptophan (experimental group) and tortillas without fortification (control group). Weekly nutrient consumption was measured, also body weight and the following anthropometric indicators: weight / age, height / age and weight / height. Results were statistically analyzedestimating the mean, standard deviation, correlation and t Student test. Results showed at the end of the experimental period of 12 months, that there was an improvement in all the growing variables, but the difference did not reach the level of statistical significance(p> 0.05) among children who consumed fortified tortillas vs. those fed with tortillas without fortification.Possibly this was due to a low total energy intake in theexperimental group. It was concluded that consumption of tortillas fortified with lysine and tryptophan did not contribute significantly to improve the nutritional status of the pre-school children, because it is not the only factor that favors malnutrition, however fortification led to a better weight gain and all anthropometric indexes.