A Review of Nutrition in Cameroon: Food Supply, Factors Influencing Nutritional Habit and Impact on Micronutrient (Vitamin A, Iodine, Iron) Status

Over the years, it has become evident that healthy nutritional habits have beneficial effects on health. This paper reviews available data from nutritional and epidemiological studies on natural food resources and nutritional habits in Cameroon. Of the fifteen studies available, seven reported on the natural food resources and nutritional habits in Cameroon. These studies showed that, although Cameroon is rich in natural food resources, factors like climate, household income, nutritional knowledge, urbanisation, gender and age and health have a great impact on the nutritional habits of the inhabitants. Poor nutritional habits in some parts of Cameroon has lead to high prevalence of protein-energy-malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency (vitamin A, C, E, iodine, iron, zinc etc.) especially during infections with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. However, data on micronutrient deficiency in Cameroon was very limited, except for public health relevant micronutrient (vitamin A, iron, iodine deficiency)