"Stunningly widespread" bad diets among the world's poor people impose "long-term damage to societies as well as to individuals," argues The Economist, March 24. The analysis observers that "governments often try to deal with the problems of nutrition in the same breath as the problems of starvation: by dishing out cheap food." Rather, "what is needed are little interventions: adding iodine to salt here, doling out vitamin A supplements there."

"Even relatively small doses work. Yet they also raise one of the great puzzles of development. These are, by some measures, the best investments you could make. When the Copenhagen Business School asked some Nobel-winning economists the best way to spend money to help the world, nutritional projects topped the poll."