Meat, milk and eggs may be causing citizens of wealthier nations to count their calories, but in the world's impoverished countries these animal-based foods are a gold mine of critically needed micronutrients.

With that in mind, international funding agencies and relief organizations should help to put more of these foods into the mouths of chronically malnourished people, says an international coalition of nutritionists and agriculturists that gathered recently at the University of California's Washington Center in Washington, D.C.

"For too long, we in the developed world have been practicing a form of nutritional imperialism," said Montague Demment, director of the UC Davis-based Global Livestock Collaborative Research Support Program. "Because we struggle with the health consequences of an overabundance and overconsumption of meat and other animal-based foods, we forget that these same foods are a rich source of iron, zinc and other micronutrients that are vitally important, particularly for children. Micronutrients are needed to ensure that these children not only survive but develop to their full mental and physical capacity."

Demment pointed to studies in Kenya by researchers funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the global livestock program indicating that the addition of meat and milk to the daily diet of school-age children eliminated severe vitamin B-12 deficiency. Meat alone significantly boosted their cognitive abilities, leadership behaviors, physical activities and muscle mass.

Research physicians Charlotte Neumann of UCLA and Nimrod Bwibo of the University of Nairobi, who worked on the Kenya study, urge that food-based solutions be developed to combat the problem of multiple micronutrient deficiencies.

"Food-based solutions are potentially far more sustainable than long-term distribution of pills and capsules," said Neumann. "As a colleague of mine says, we need to go 'back to the farm, not to the pharmacy.' "

During the recent Washington, D.C., conference on "Animal Source Foods and Nutrition in Developing Countries," more than 100 researchers from 18 nations gathered to pool their research findings and chart a plan for encouraging the use of animal-based foods in the developing world.

Some of the research highlights shared at the conference included:

* Significant gains can be made in cognitive performance over time when environmental conditions, particularly the quality of the diet, are substantially improved. Findings from a four-year study in Kenya were the first to document this phenomenon in the rural area of a developing country and underscore the importance of improving nutrition in order to improve mental development.

* Meat, added to the diet of school children, resulted in the most dramatic increase in cognitive abilities of school children when compared to diets supplemented with milk or additional calories from non-animal source foods and to a control group.

* Quality of food, in terms of micronutrient content, is as important as quantity when it comes to encouraging proper growth in children. This underscores the role that meat and other animal-based foods can play in improving nutritional status and preventing childhood malnutrition.

* Because micronutrients are so critical to the physical and mental development of children, education is needed to encourage families in developing countries to allocate meat and other animal-source foods to children first, rather than to adults, whose micronutrient requirements are not as high.

The researchers note that there is a need to work with international funding agencies and non-governmental agencies to encourage the use of animal-based foods in food-assistance programs. Most food-assistance programs rely on cereal crops because they are more locally available or cheaper for relief organizations to acquire.

The coalition of researchers has charted out a research agenda and now is making plans to assist funding agencies and non-governmental organizations.

"There is no single answer to the problems of hunger and malnutrition, but international funding agencies and relief organizations can play an important role in encouraging programs that supply more animal-based foods for consumption by undernourished people," said Demment. "All countries and cultures are different, and we need to support the development of programs that adequately address their dietary needs."

Collaborating with the global livestock program to co-sponsor the Washington, D.C., conference were the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Heifer International, Land-O-Lakes and Pond Dynamics/Aquaculture CRSP.