MICRONUTRIENTS AND URBAN LIFE-STYLE - LESSONS FROM GUATEMALA

Guatemala is a nation of 10 million persons, at the northern point of the chain of five Republics derived from Spanish colonies on the Isthm us of Central America. The country is diverse in its ethnicities, its climate and terrain, and its agricultural pursuits. The majority of it s population is poor, illiterate, and under-employed. It has had a uni que and turbulent political history and only recently has emerged. The traditional basis of the diet, dating to Mayan times, is maize and be ans. Guatemala City, with its population in excess of 2 million inhabi tants, having doubled since the Earthquake of 1976, is the only major metropolis. The pattern of dietary selection and the format of eating meals is changing in relationship to the size, congestion, economic ev olution, and modernization of the capital city. A wider selection of f oods is consumed in the city, but preparation follows the traditions o f the rural cuisine. Street vendors play an ever larger role in the fe eding of the urban poor. Quantitative data are only available for vita min A and zinc, and only in certain subsegments of the population. The vitamin A in fortified foods, notably table sugar which is fortified with retinyl palmitate by legal mandate, makes up over one-third of th e intake. The maize tortilla is an important sources of calcium, iron, zinc and copper. Average zinc intakes are appropriate, but the biolog ical availability of the metal is low. The intake of iodine is totally dependent upon table salt which is inconsistently fortified. Data on micronutrient status exists for vitamin A, iron, iodine, riboflavin an d zinc. With respect to rural areas, no major advantages or disadvanta ges in the adequacy of micronutrient nutriture can be claimed for the urban population. It is probable that, in the metropolitan area, vitam in A nutriture is slightly better and riboflavin status somewhat poore r than in the countryside. The prospects for future directions in urba n lifestyle, in micronutrient status and in their interaction are unce rtain. The pressures of growth are straining the ability of the munici pal infrastructure and the industrial base to respond with provision o f services and employment.