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Sustainable Micronutrients in Europe: Is There Cause for Concern?

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Sustainable Nutrition in a Changing World

Abstract

Despite the fact that vitamin and mineral deficiencies seem to occur only in low-income countries, there are also numbers of individuals in high-income countries who are deficient in these essential micronutrients. Whether due to poverty, lack of nutrition education or poor health, significant sections of the population of Europe have been documented in a range of recent studies as being deficient in key micronutrients. Women of child-bearing age and especially women who are pregnant have heightened needs for the critical micronutrients vitamins B2, B6, B12, niacin, folate, vitamins A, C and D, iron, magnesium, iodine and zinc. Micronutrient provision via the diet is a key factor in brain development, and an adequate micronutrient supply during the first 1,000 days of life is essential for long-term health and wellbeing. This chapter discusses the roles of the individual micronutrients on maternal and child health and proposes supplementation with multivitamin/mineral supplements during pregnancy as a safe approach to improving birth outcomes and reducing the risk of a range of diseases in later life. It concludes that to avoid effects of ‘silent’ micronutrient gaps, it is necessary to ensure a sufficient diet with adequate nutrients as proposed in the FAO/WHO statement on food security.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nutrition medicine, Department of Biological Chemistry and Nutrition, Food Security Center, University Hohenheim, Garbenstraße 30, 70593, Stuttgart, Germany

    Hans Konrad Biesalski

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Correspondence to Hans Konrad Biesalski .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Hans Konrad Biesalski

  2. Nutritional Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Adam Drewnowski

  3. Tufts Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Johanna T. Dwyer

  4. Northern Irerland Centre for Food a, University of Ulster Northern Irerland Centre for Food a, Coleraine, United Kingdom

    JJ Strain

  5. DSM Nutritional Products Europe Ltd. , Kaiseraugst, Switzerland

    Peter Weber

  6. DSM Nutritional Products Europe Ltd. , Kaiseraugst, Switzerland

    Manfred Eggersdorfer

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Biesalski, H.K. (2017). Sustainable Micronutrients in Europe: Is There Cause for Concern?. In: Biesalski, H., Drewnowski, A., Dwyer, J., Strain, J., Weber, P., Eggersdorfer, M. (eds) Sustainable Nutrition in a Changing World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55942-1_10

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