A new study has highlighted a pressing global health issue: millions of people worldwide are deficient in essential nutrients for heart health. This research, a collaborative effort between scientists from Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, UC Santa Barbara (UCSB), and GAIN, sheds light on the broader problem of micronutrient malnutrition. The findings emphasize the critical need for adequate intake of essential nutrients for heart health to address this growing concern.

The published study, in Lancet Global Health on August 29, is the first effort to quantify the worldwide shortage of 15 essential micronutrients. The studies show that sixty percent of the world’s population has inadequate consumption of calcium, iron, and vitamins C and E.

Chris Free, a research professor at UCSB and co-lead author, said that the study was a major advancement in the global scale of inadequate micronutrient intake, saying that "our study not only estimates inadequate micronutrient intake for 34 different age-sex groups in nearly every country, but it also makes the methods and results accessible to other researchers and practitioners."

Essential Nutrients for Heart
Image Source: www.ucsb.edu

Using the Global Dietary Database, World Bank data, and dietary surveys from 185 countries across the 31 nations, the research compiled data on nutritional status. In the study, the use data was divided into 17 age segments from less than one year to over 80, and the fifteen fundamental vitamins and minerals were calcium, iodine, iron, zinc, and all the B complex series.

While the results were scary, then again, it should not come as a surprise; the deficiencies reflected in the micronutrient assessment were gaping everywhere—almost to the tune of 90 percent. Again, iodine was the most prevalent micronutrient deficiency globally, followed by vitamin E, calcium, and iron, with global percentage distributions of 68%, 67%, 66%, and 65%, respectively.

Other micronutrients that are known to be commonly underconsumed are riboflavin, folate, and vitamin C and B6. The nutrient that was determined to be best provided by supplement users was niacin, and only 22% of the global population was deemed to be using substandard amounts of this nutrient. At the same time, thiamin and selenium were assessed to be insufficient in 30% and 37% of people, respectively.

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