Evaluation of a controlled 6 months feeding trial on intake by infants and toddlers fed a high energy-low bulk gruel versus a high energy-high bulk gruel in addition to their habitual home diet.

The aim of this study was to determine the intake of 68 slum children (6-24 months old) pair matched for age and nutritional status who were fed an experimental energy dense (1.63 Kcal/ml) wheat flour gruel rendered low-viscosity with catalytic amounts of germinated wheat flour (Amylase-Rich Food, ARF) v. an identical high viscosity control gruel without ARF for a once-a-day ad lib feed in addition to the habitual home diet for a period of 180 days. The mean intake in the experimental group was 124 ml and 199 Kcal v. 31 ml and 50 Kcal in the control gruel group per child/day. The gruel feeds were well accepted and were complementary to the home diet (breastmilk plus some family diet which provided only 420-461 Kcal/day). The experimental and control gruels provided about 20 and 5 per cent of the food energy RDA, respectively. The protein RDA was nearly met by the home diet in both groups. The study demonstrated a simple means to greatly increase the food energy intake in this age group by offering high energy yet low bulk gruels with the help of the ARF technology.