Leeds student wins top award
6th November 2009
Leeds student Ben Summers won a top accolade at the Science, Engineering and Technology awards recently.
Ben Summers won the ‘Cadbury Award for the Best Food, Nutrition and Health Student’ at this year’s event for his project investigating the relationship between malnutrition and arsenic toxicity in Nawalparsi, Nepal. The dietary study was part of his undergraduate project supervised by Dr Santosh Khokhar.
Intake of arsenic from drinking water often exceeded tolerable levels in Nawalparasi, with a significant relationship to arsenic induced skin cancer observed, most notably amongst malnourished individuals. The dietary survey revealed, for the first time, that the diet is also a significant source of arsenic exposure. This is further impacted by contaminated water used in food preparation.
Chronic energy deficiency and a very monotonous diet (average: 15 different foods consumed in a week) confirmed prevalent malnutrition in the study group. The study concluded that malnutrition and arsenic toxicity is interrelated in this population group.
Further analysis is in progress to pin point the link between nutrient intakes with malnutrition and arsenic toxicity. A new study has been launched to better quantify the dietary contribution of arsenic and to reveal dominant foodstuffs and common preparation methods.
Funding acknowledgments; Filters for Families, The Charity of Harvey and Elizabeth Eakins, Edmond Arnold Educational Foundation and the Denis Burkitt Study Award facilitated by the British Nutrition Foundation.
Ben has also been recognised at the following awards and presentations:
• Food Science and Technology award for Young Scientist of 2009 – North of England branch.
• Presentation at Nutrition Society Summer Meeting, Surrey, 2009. Original communication pending publication.