IAEA Nutrition Programmes Feed Global Development

As an organization, the IAEA has a statutory requirement to "accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world." Good nutrition is the cornerstone of good health and the development of nations. That's why the IAEA is involved in nutrition. The IAEA's Member States use nuclear methods to move their nutrition programmes forward. These nuclear techniques include the use of stable isotopes (which have no radioactivity) to better understand how nutrients are absorbed, utilized, or stored in the body. These very precise and powerful techniques can be safely and non-invasively used on everyone, from babies to the elderly, in order to determine nutritional status, and measure the effectiveness of nutrition programmes. Nuclear techniques often provide answers that are not available by any other means. By training Member States in the use of nuclear techniques for nutrition, the IAEA complements the work that these countries are doing with other international organizations and not-for-profit groups around the world to combat malnutrition in all its forms and to promote health.