Malnutrition
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the physical state of overall poor health. It can result from a lack of enough food to eat or from eating the wrong foods. Malnutrition is most common in developing countries where people do not get enough to eat or are able to eat only one type of food.
If nutrition means eating enough of the right kinds of food to stay alive and healthy, then malnutrition is literally "bad" nutrition. Malnutrition affects a large part of the world's population. Even in developed countries, many children suffer from some forms of diet deficiency similar to malnutrition. Since animals cannot photosynthesize, or make their own food, as plants do, animals must get all their nutrients (the substances necessary for life) from their food. A balanced diet would contain all the basic types of nutrients that an animal needs. These include proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Malnutrition can be the result of a lack of many of these vital nutrients or of one particular nutrient.
Few people, if any, choose to be malnourished. This unhealthy condition can have one or more causes. External circumstances, such as war or a crop failure, can make it impossible to get enough food to eat. Very often, essential foods can become scarce or completely unavailable. Poor eating habits can also lead to a person eating only one kind of food and excluding many others. Finally, a physical condition can prevent or impair the proper digestion and absorption of food. For example, people in developing countries who drink contaminated water often get prolonged cases of diarrhea. They then lose essential nutrients from their bowels.
PROTEIN-ENERGY MALNUTRITION
Whatever the external reason, probably the most serious form of malnutrition is called protein-energy malnutrition. The terribly sad pictures of very young children with large, swollen bellies are examples of protein deficiency. Their huge bellies, made so large by a fluid imbalance, seem to deny the fact that they are in fact starving to death. Proteins, which are made of amino acids, are essential to human life since they are needed for cell growth and repair. Of the twenty amino acids needed by the body, ten can only be obtained through diet. Without a certain amount of these essential amino acids, a person's body systems will stop working normally, resulting in sickness and even death.
In many very poor countries, people often eat very little protein and live mainly on a diet very high in carbohydrates. This is understandable since carbohydrates, like corn and other grains, are fairly cheap to grow and process. The protein that is found in meat, fish, poultry, and milk is naturally more expensive and in shorter supply. Lacking proteins, the malnourished person's body also cannot make the enzymes (proteins that control the rate of chemical changes) necessary for all of the chemical reactions required during digestion.
When a person first begins to be severely deprived of food, called starvation, the body starts a process of using up its stores. First to be used are the carbohydrates, since the body stores very little of these. After two days or so, the carbohydrates are gone and the body turns to any stored fat it may have. Not until it has turned all of the fat it has into energy, and only after it has no more, will the body begin to turn to its own protein sources. Some describe fat as a protein protector. However, with all fat gone, the body must begin to use protein as a source of energy.
Proteins are essential for enzymes and hormones (chemical messengers) and serve as the body's building blocks. Using up this precious source without replacing it can only result in the body's cells not doing their jobs. The body, in effect, starts to consume itself. In children, this results in slowed mental and physical growth. Since their immune systems (a collection of cells and tissues that protect the body against disease-causing organisms) have shut down, these children cannot fight infections and easily contract diseases. Besides their swollen bellies, their hair often falls out and their muscles waste away. Needless to say, they are listless and have little energy before they finally die.
Adults who are malnourished show the same mental dullness as children, and they also easily contract diseases. Mothers give birth to severely underweight babies and cannot produce enough breast milk to feed them. The lack of a certain vitamin or mineral can also result in a particular deficiency disease, but this is more easily corrected than is a severe case of general malnutrition. As the world population continues to grow at an alarming rate, it appears that malnutrition may continue be a constant problem for developing countries.