Editing Human nutrition (section)

=== Nutrition interventions ===
Nutrition directly influences progress towards meeting the [[Millennium Development Goals]] of eradicating hunger and poverty through health and education.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Therefore, nutrition interventions take a multi-faceted approach to improve the nutrition status of various populations. Policy and programming must target both individual behavioral changes and policy approaches to public health. While most nutrition interventions focus on delivery through the health-sector, non-health sector interventions targeting [[agriculture]], water and sanitation, and education are important as well.<ref name="Essential Nutrition Actions" /> Global nutrition [[Micronutrient deficiency|micronutrient deficiencies]] often receive large-scale solution approaches by deploying large governmental and non-governmental organizations. For example, in 1990, [[iodine deficiency]] was particularly prevalent, with one in five households, or 1.7 billion people, not consuming adequate iodine, leaving them at risk to develop associated diseases.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Therefore, a global campaign to iodize salt to eliminate iodine deficiency successfully boosted the rate to 69% of households in the world consuming adequate amounts of iodine.<ref name="Progress for Children" />

Emergencies and crises often exacerbate undernutrition, due to the aftermath of crises that include food insecurity, poor health resources, unhealthy environments, and poor healthcare practices.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Therefore, the repercussions of natural disasters and other emergencies can exponentially increase the rates of macro and micronutrient deficiencies in populations.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Disaster relief interventions often take a multi-faceted public health approach. UNICEF's programming targeting nutrition services amongst disaster settings include nutrition assessments, [[measles]] immunization, vitamin A supplementation, provision of fortified foods and micronutrient supplements, support for breastfeeding and complementary feeding for infants and young children, and therapeutic and supplementary feeding.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> For example, during Nigeria's food crisis of 2005, 300,000 children received therapeutic nutrition feeding programs through the collaboration of [[UNICEF]], the [[Niger]] government, the [[World Food Programme]], and 24 NGOs utilizing community and facility based feeding schemes.<ref name="Progress for Children" />

Interventions aimed at pregnant women, infants, and children take a behavioral and program-based approach. Behavioral intervention objectives include promoting proper breast-feeding, the immediate initiation of breastfeeding, and its continuation through 2 years and beyond.<ref name="Essential Nutrition Actions" /> UNICEF recognizes that to promote these behaviors, healthful environments must be established conducive to promoting these behaviors, like healthy hospital environments, skilled health workers, support in the public and workplace, and removing negative influences.<ref name="Essential Nutrition Actions" /> Finally, other interventions include provisions of adequate micro and macro nutrients such as iron, anemia, and vitamin A supplements and vitamin-fortified foods and ready-to-use products.<ref name="Essential Nutrition Actions" /> Programs addressing [[micronutrient deficiencies]], such as those aimed at anemia, have attempted to provide iron supplementation to pregnant and lactating women. However, because supplementation often occurs too late, these programs have had little effect.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Interventions such as women's nutrition, early and exclusive breastfeeding, appropriate complementary food and micronutrient supplementation have proven to reduce stunting and other manifestations of undernutrition.<ref name="IMPROVING CHILD NUTRITION" /> A Cochrane review of community-based maternal health packages showed that this community-based approach improved the initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors=Lassi ZS, Bhutta ZA | title=Community-based intervention packages for reducing maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality and improving neonatal outcomes | journal=The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews | issue=3 | pages=CD007754 | date=March 2015 | volume=2015 | pmid=25803792 | doi=10.1002/14651858.CD007754.pub3 | pmc=8498021 | url=https://ecommons.aku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=pakistan_fhs_mc_women_childhealth_wc | access-date=2019-09-24 | archive-date=2022-03-09 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220309043003/https://ecommons.aku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=pakistan_fhs_mc_women_childhealth_wc | url-status=live}}</ref> Some programs have had adverse effects. One example is the "Formula for Oil" relief program in Iraq, which resulted in the replacement of breastfeeding for formula, which has negatively affected infant nutrition.<ref name="Progress for Children" />