Chapter II

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Chapter IIReview of Related Literature and StudiesI. Foreign

Introduction

“The world produces enough food to feed every man, woman and child on earth. Hunger and malnutrition therefore are not due to lack of food alone, but are also theconsequences of poverty, inequality and misplaced priorities.” – UNICEF DeputyExecutive Director, Kul C. Gautam (Executive speech, To the World Food Summit: FiveYears Later, 11/6/02)Proper nutrition is a powerful good: people who are well nourished are more likely to behealthy, productive and able to learn. Good nutrition benefits families, their communitiesand the world as a whole.Malnutrition is, by the same logic, devastating. It plays a part in more than a third of allchild deaths in developing countries. It blunts the intellect, saps the productivity of everyone it touches and perpetuates poverty.Although fewer children are undernourished than in the 1990s, 1 in 4, or 143 millionunder-five children in the developing world are still underweight and only 38 per cent of children less than six months are exclusively breastfed. While significant progress has been made in relation to vitamin A supplementation and salt iodization, micronutrientdeficiencies remain significant public health problems in many countries. It is essential

to address under nutrition if there is any hope of achieving theMillennium Development Goals(MDGs).Malnutrition is called an “invisible” emergency because, much like an iceberg, its deadlymenace lies mostly hidden from view. Each year malnutrition is implicated in about 40%of the 11 million deaths of children under five in developing countries, and lack of immediate and exclusive breastfeedingin infancy causes an additional 1.5 million of these deaths. However, contrary to popular belief, only a fraction of these children diefrom starvation in catastrophic circumstances such as famine or war. In the majority of cases, the lethal hand of malnutrition and poor breastfeeding practices is far more subtle:they cripple children’s growth, render them susceptible to disease, dull their intellects,diminish their motivation, and sap their productivity. (http://www.unicef.org)

What is malnutrition?

Malnutrition is a disparity between the amount of food and other nutrients that the bodyneeds and the amount that it is receiving. This imbalance is most frequently associatedwith undernutrition, the primary focus of this article, but it may also be due toovernutrition.Chronicovernutrition can lead to obesity and tometabolic syndrome, a set of risk factors characterized by abdominal obesity, a decreased ability to process glucose (insulin resistance),dyslipidemia, andhypertension. Those with metabolic syndrome have been shown to be at a greater risk of developingtype 2 diabetesandcardiovascular disease.

Another relatively uncommon form of overnutrition is vitamin or mineral toxicity. This isusually due to excessive supplementation, for instance, high doses of fat-soluble vitaminssuch as Vitamin A rather than the ingestion of food. Toxicity symptoms depend on thesubstance(s) ingested, the severity of the overdose, and whether it is acute or chronic.Undernutrition occurs when one or more vital nutrients are not present in the quantity thatis needed for the body to develop and function normally. This may be due to insufficientintake, increased loss, increased demand, or a condition or disease that decreases the body’s ability to digest and absorb nutrients from available food. While the need for adequate nutrition is a constant, the demands of the body will vary, both on a daily andyearly basis. (http://www.labtestsonline.org)When a person is not getting enough food or not getting the right sort of food,malnutrition is just around the corner. Disease is often a factor, either as a result or contributing cause. Even if people get enough to eat, they will become malnourished if the food they eat does not provide the proper amounts of micronutrients - vitamins andminerals - to meet daily nutritional requirements.Malnutrition is the largest single contributor to disease, according to the UN's StandingCommittee on Nutrition (SCN).Impaired health caused by a dietarydeficiency, excess, or imbalance. To support human life, energy (from fat,carbohydrate, and protein), water, and more than 40 different foodsubstances must be obtained from the diet in appropriate amounts. Malnutrition can result

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