Malnutrition and ill health:
Are you familiar with the term malnutrition? Malnutrition means either lack of sufficient food or imbalance of nutrients in the diet, resulting in the impairment of health. Protein- calorie deficiency and the resulting malnutrition are prevalent in India and in other developing nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America. What are the causes of malnutrition in India? Some of .the causes are as follows :
1 Poverty
2 Large population
3 Inadequate production and inequitable distribution of food
Can you add some more to this list? Well, lack of education, ignorance and faulty food habits aIso contribute to malnutrition. As you know, population and poverty are distributed unevenly on this planet. Affluent countries like USA, Canada, USSR, Australia, etc. have smaller populations and higher standards of living than developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America which have 70% of the world population and a lower standard of living. Approximately, three quarters of the under-nourished people of the world live in the Indian subcontinent.
At the social level, we should not waste food. We often find that in large festive gatherings. whether of affluent or of poor people, substantial amounts of food are thrown away. We should also avoid eating excess of food either in terms of protein or calories. Let us continue with our discussion on the problem of malnutrition in India. The inadequacy of food results in nutritional deficiencies and reduces the intake of one or more nutrients. This results in poor health, increased susceptibility to disease and in reduction of the life span. Money spent on treatment of ill health and disease could possibly have improved nutrition to avoid disease!