Guava with mungbean dal and anemia in Indian children
What it found
In a 7-month trial in Indian school children, eating guava with a mungbean meal raised hemoglobin and cut anemia, but did not improve body iron stores.
The effects were larger in children who were iron deficient at the start.
What they found
Studies in people
Body iron stores
Guava with the mungbean meal did not improve body iron stores overall. The mean treatment effect was 0.65 mg/kg body weight.
Hemoglobin increase
Children who ate guava had a larger rise in hemoglobin than those who ate the dal alone. The treatment effect was 3.7 g/L.
Anemia reduction
The guava group showed a larger drop in the prevalence of anemia, by 51%, and in iron-deficiency anemia, by 56%, compared with the control group.
Iron-deficient children
Treatment effects were more pronounced in children who were iron deficient at study start. In that subgroup, the mean difference in body iron stores between groups was 0.93 mg/kg body weight.
Iron deficiency
No treatment effect on iron deficiency itself was observed. The prevalence of iron deficiency was similar in both groups at the end.
What the authors conclude
“Addition of guava to a mungbean-based meal containing a moderate amount of iron increased hemoglobin and reduced anemia but did not provide enough additional absorbed iron to also increase body iron stores.”
Also in their conclusions
- They conclude that adding guava to a mungbean-based meal containing a moderate amount of iron increased hemoglobin and reduced anemia but did not provide enough additional absorbed iron to also increase body iron stores.
- They say food-to-food fortification by including vitamin C-rich fruits in iron-containing school meals may help alleviate the burden of anemia in children.
- They underline the importance of including vitamin C-rich foods in school meals.
How it was done
The authors wanted to see if adding vitamin C-rich fruit to an iron-containing staple meal could improve iron absorption and reduce iron-deficiency anemia in children.
They ran a 7-month randomized controlled trial with 200 children aged 6 to 10 in rural Haryana, North India. Children got either a mungbean dal meal alone or the same meal with fresh guava every school day.
What it can’t tell you
- This trial was in children in rural North India, so the results may not apply to other groups or settings.
- The trial cannot show whether guava would have the same effects with different meals or in children with different iron status.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- Conflict of interest The authors report no conflicts of interest.
- Authors work at
- Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands; Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University, India; Institute of Food Science and Nutrition, Switzerland
The paper
- Title
- Vitamin C-Rich Guava Consumed with Mungbean Dal Reduces Anemia and Increases Hemoglobin but not Iron Stores: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Food-to-Food Fortification in Indian Children
- Type
- Randomised controlled trial
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Rani V, Moretti D, Khetarpaul N, et al (2024). Vitamin C-Rich Guava Consumed with Mungbean Dal Reduces Anemia and Increases Hemoglobin but not Iron Stores: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Food-to-Food Fortification in Indian Children. The Journal of nutrition. doi:10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.10.042Free full textPubMed 39481541DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error