text_1: New research to treat acute malnutrition
text_2: This news release describes a study published in PLOS Medicine, showing that among moderate acute malnourished infants lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS)–a kind of fortified peanut butter–produced more gain in muscle and organ weight over 12 weeks than a corn-soy blend (CSB) porridge. Acute malnutrition affects over 50 million children across the world. It is characterized by bodily wasting following experience of a recent period of starvation. According to the researchers, until now there has been concern that because LNS has a very high fat content any weight gain it produced would be composed primarily of fat. The distinction of this study is its demonstration that LNS not only resulted in more weight gain, but that weight gain was in muscles and organs (lean mass) rather than fat. Children with the most severe level of acute malnutrition are at risk of death. Increasing the effectiveness of interventions with children before their malnutrition becomes severe could save millions of lives. However, readers would take away a better understanding of this critical issue if more space in this news release had been devoted to explaining the study itself, and less to citing various researchers and partners about how important the project was.