Nutritional and Health-Related Environmental Studies
The section works with Member States to increase their competence in applying nuclear and isotopic techniques to Human nutrition and impact of dietary contaminants.
Nuclear and isotopic techniques are considered as the gold standard methods in setting up guidelines and recommendations on nutrients intake and utilization and for measuring body composition, energy expenditure and breast milk intake. They are accurate tools for developing and evaluating food based interventions such as food fortification, biofortification and complementary foods.
Nuclear
and isotopic techniques have also been used in the diagnosis of osteoporosis
and Helicobacter pylori infection and in assessing the impact of toxic elements
on human health.
The tracer dilution technique, based on the use of stable isotopes, is the method of choice when a quantitative estimate of vitamin A pool size is important. For example, this technique can be used to estimate quantitatively the amount of vitamin A retained in the body in response to supplementation with vitamin A or to evaluate the impact of different dietary sources of vitamin A. The Vitamin A Tracer Task Force was initiated by IAEA, USAID, HarvestPlus and ILSI to prepare documents on the appropriate use of vitamin A tracer (stable isotope) methodology and a Handbook on Vitamin A Tracer Dilution Methods to Assess Status and Evaluate Intervention Programs.