Background. Child undernourishment is the disturbance of body function arising from a dietary imbalance between body demand and supply, which is the most serious public health problem in developing countries. Objective. This study aimed to assess the magnitude of nutritional status and associated factors among full-cycle primary schoolchildren in pastoral communities in the Mieso-Mulu district, Sitti Zone, Somali Regional State of Ethiopia. Methods. An institution-based cross-sectional study design was used. Study participants were selected using two-stage sampling procedures. Data were collected using structured, translated, pretested, and interviewer-administered questionnaires. The weight and height were measured using a calibrated digital scale and a Seca Rod stadiometer, respectively. Microscopic identification of intestinal parasites was done. Multicollinearity was checked for independent variables. Height for age z scores (HAZ) and body mass index for age z scores (BAZ) were used to determine the nutritional status of children. Logistic regression with both bivariate analysis and multivariate analysis was applied to identify associated factors with the nutritional status of children. Adjusted odds ratios were reported and the level of statistical significance was declared at a $P$ value <0.05. Results. The magnitudes of thinness and stunting were 13.1% [95% CI: 10.6%, 15.7%] and 24.6% [95% CI: 21.3%, 27.9%], respectively. Being male, not using a bed net, and the presence of intestinal parasitic infection were among the factors associated with thinness. Family size of less than five, household food insecurity, and unavailability of the latrine were among the factors associated with stunting. Conclusion. This study revealed that stunting and thinness are major health problems among schoolchildren. Household food insecurity, intestinal parasitic infection, bed net utilization, and the availability of latrine were some of the major factors significantly associated with undernutrition. Local policymakers, health programmers, nutritionists, health practitioners, and nongovernmental organizations should enhance the nutritional status of schoolchildren by using information dissemination interventions, particularly in improving waste disposal, sanitation/hygiene, latrine facilities, and school-based deworming. Furthermore, awareness creation using nutrition promotion and encouraging communities to attempt to diversify locally available and low-cost nutritionally effective food items to improve food consumption and distribution within a household is recommended to reduce the prevalence of undernutrition among schoolchildren.

Maternal nutrition is very important for the wellbeing of pregnant women, childbirth, and lactating women, which are crucial and meant for the wellbeing of a mother and newborn baby. This narrative review discusses nutritional malpractices, motivational drivers, and their consequences typically from Ethiopian pregnant women’s context. Different studies (regarding less of study design and type) done among pregnant women (aged 15–49 years) by considering pregnancy-related outcomes and timing of nutritional malpractices were included mostly. Accordingly, taboos of healthy diets, craving for unhealthy foods (sweet, fat, raw, and salty/spicy foods), and nonfood items (soil, coffee residue, stone, and ash) were practiced majorly by the women. The birth difficulty, fetal head plastering, fetus discoloration, fetus burns, abortion, and abdominal cramp are the primary drivers of taboos of healthy diets. Hormonal change and social and nutrient-seeking behavior are the most prevalent drivers to the consumption of unhealthy foods. Additionally, personal interest, flavor, and color of items are important motivators to practice pica. Such pica practice hurts nutrient intake, absorption of iron/zinc, abdominal health, and diarrhea occurrence. Food taboos are high predictors of health disorders, such as intrauterine growth restriction, infection, bleeding, preeclampsia, stillbirth, early birth, low birth weight, retarded development of cognitive, and anemia. Craving and eating unhealthy foods were interconnected with chronic disease development (hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer), discomforts, preterm labor, preeclampsia, and intrauterine growth restriction in women. Additionally, it is also associated with stillbirth, low birth weight, obesity, birth defect/deficit, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, renal disease, decreased fetal growth, behavioral change, heart failure, and poor cognitive development in the infant. Overall, these nutritional malpractices are significantly associated with many argumentative pregnancies as well as developmental consequences leading to the direction of infant and maternal mortality and morbidity. Therefore, urgent implementation of health and nutrition education programs considering food misconceptions and beliefs regarding pregnancy and use of ground-breaking ways to play down the negative and maximize potential positive dietary effects designed by the government of Ethiopia could also serve as a long-term solution to the problem.

Background: Protein-energy malnutrition and vitamin A deficiency (VAD) are the most important public health issues, and a food-based strategy is crucial to combat those health problems among the vulnerable group of people. Methods: Composite biscuits were made with 100:0:0, 90:5:5, 80:10:10, 70:15:15, 60:20:20, and 50:25:25 percent wheat, haricot bean, and orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) flours.Standard methods were used to evaluate the proximate compositions, β-carotene, physical properties, functional properties, and sensory acceptability. A one-way analysis of variance model was used to statistically evaluate the data using the statistical analysis system software package, version 9.0 standard methods. Results: The results showed that partially replacing wheat with haricot beans and OFSP increased the β-carotene and proximate compositions significantly. When wheat was replaced with haricot beans and OFSP, the physical characteristics of the biscuits did not vary significantly from those of biscuits made entirely of wheat flour. Sensory acceptability (appearance, color, flavor, taste and overall acceptability) was higher in the composite biscuits with up to 40% wheat substitution than in the 100% wheat flour biscuits. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this report, replacing wheat with OFSP and haricot beans in biscuit formulation appears to be promising in improving nutritional quality, sensory acceptability, and beta carotene. It is proposed that these products can mitigate food insecurity and deficiency of vitamin A.

Reduction of postharvest losses through improved technique is studied in this work. Pretreatment and drying, in particular, are important methods for using various tuber-based food items to produce intermediate products that increase economic benefit and availability with a longer shelf life in the production and consumption communities. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of pretreatment and drying methods on the proximate composition and physical and functional properties of flour developed from anchote. The treated anchote flour was prepared using hot distilled water for blanching and potassium metabisulphite solution and drying methods (sun, solar, and oven). The obtained data were statistically analyzed using SAS software at . Accordingly, the untreated and sun-dried anchote had greater moisture content (10.34%) than the chemically treated and oven-dried anchote (8.71%). The samples treated with potassium metabisulphite and the solar-drying methods have higher protein content (4.02%) than the blanched and sun-dried samples (3.14%). Samples treated with blanching and solar drying have lower ash content (3.96%) than samples treated with potassium metabisulphite and dried (4.89%). The highest fiber content was recorded for samples treated with blanching and oven-drying methods, with a rating of 4.71%. Sun-dried samples had an increased fat content (1.14%) compared to blanch with all drying methods (0.72%). The untreated and sun-dried flour had lower carbohydrate content (80.95%) than blanched and oven-dried (83.03%). The potassium-metabisulphite-treated and oven-dried samples rated 2.66% with the highest water absorption value. The blanched and oven-dried samples had the lowest oil absorption capacity of 1.71%, a significantly different value from the highest value of 1.98% for the potassium-metabisulphite-treated and solar-dried samples. Oven-dried samples had higher swelling power than solar- and sun-drying methods. The anchote samples treated by blanching methods and dried in the oven had the highest solubility rating of 43.84% and the lowest value of 38.8% for control and sun-dried samples. The sun-dried anchote flour had the highest dispersibility value, which is significantly different from both the oven-dried and solar-dried versions. Along with that, the untreated samples had significantly lower dispersibility values than the potassium-metabisulphite-treated and blanched flour samples. The proximate values of anchote flour were significantly affected by pretreatment and drying methods. Additionally, the main and interactive effect of pretreatment and drying methods influenced the water absorption capacity, oil absorption capacity, swelling power, solubility, and dispersibility significantly. Further research is required to improve flour properties and characterize pasting properties to assess the suitability of the starch for different industrial inputs.

Understanding the drivers of food choice is essential to guide the nutrition interventions and tailor nutrition counseling messages. There is strong evidence from a published study, which demonstrate attention for the need to consider the wide range of drivers during food choice. Due to the large variety of food products on the market, consumers make a multitude of food choice daily. The study aimed to assess major motivational drivers of food choice among randomly selected lactating women aged 15–49 years (423) from Debrebirhan Town using face to face interview. Logistic regression analysis was used to find association b/socio-economic variables and motivational drivers of food choice using SPSS version 20. Candidate variables were selected and transferred using the P- a value of less than 0.25, and AOR was reported. Variables with a P-value less than 0.05 on multiple variable logistic regressions were taken as significant variables. Influences of religion, price, preparation convenience, health value and taste during food choice were responded by above half of women. From logistic regression, 15–25 years’ age and self-employed were linked to religious influence in food choice with AOR (95%CI) of 0.09(0.01–0.48) and 4.13(1.4–12.24). Age (15–25 and 26–35 years), education (no, primary and secondary) and being housewife were associated to choosing of foods for their health value with AOR (95%CI) of 0.26(0.12–0.6), 0.37(0.18–0.76), 0.14(0.04–0.42), 0.25(0.13–0.54), 0.33(0.17–0.66) and 2.5(1.23–5). Only family size (2–4 vs.>4 persons) was associated with price concern in food choice with AOR (95%CI) of 0.39(0.21–0.71). Being divorced, husband headed, 7–12 and13-18 month lactation period, 15–25 and 26–35 years’ age were related to preparation convenience of foods with AOR (95%CI) of 5.94(1.13–31.33), 0.42(0.18–0.96), 3.26(1.34–7.93), 4.4(1.81–10.72), 0.16(0.05–0.47) and 0.25(0.11–0.59). Self-management approaches by nutrition education and promotion to change eating behaviors of women, increasing supply and price regulation toward healthy foods are recommended.

Background. What food people choose to eat is embraced by circumstances that are essentially influenced by the underlying motives of food choices which are important to a healthful dietary change. Therefore, this study aimed to explore food choice behaviors associated with nutritional status and FVs intake in women during lactation from central Amhara. Methods. A multistage sampling technique was applied to select study participants. A study was conducted among 423 randomly selected lactating women using a face-to-face interview of the questionnaire. A community-based cross-sectional, quantitative study with descriptive and analytical components was done. Anthropometrics measurements such as weight, height, waist, and hip circumference were taken from all participants. Body mass index was calculated to determine the nutritional status of women. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 computer software program. Association between dependent and independent variables was identified by logistic regression analysis, and a -value< 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Results. About 21.7% of women were underweight. Approximately 37.4% of women had good consumption trends to fruits and vegetables. Healthy meal eating motivation, price-consciousness, and mood concern were identified as the most significant behaviors of food choice, influencing the nutritional status of women with AOR (95% CI) of 2.1 (1.21–3.62), 3.01 (1.32–6.9), and 0.5 (0.30–0.95), respectively. Natural content (AOR (95%): 2.37 (1.39–4.06)), mood concern (AOR (95%): 2.29 (1.15–4.56)), religion concern (AOR (95%): 2.45 (1.37–4.4)), husband encouragement (AOR (95%): 2.26 (1.04–4.89)), and availability of milk and milk products (AOR (95%): 1.6 (1.39–2.74)) and fruits and vegetables (AOR (95%): 1.66 (1.16–3.48)) in home were associated significantly with a good intake of fruit and vegetables. Conclusions. This finding provides a useful insight into the food choice motivations of a group of women with preference for natural foods, mood concern, religion concern, and husband support with good fruit and vegetable intake. This can help practitioners make recommendations for health promotion strategies. Emphasis on assisting women with healthy meal eating and avoiding psychological stress is important. Nutrition education about healthy food choice is recommended for communities.