Image from Aangirfan.
One of the topics we looked at during the Health Education Trip to Thailand was malnutrition.
Malnutrition was defined as:
a state or disease caused by sustained deficiency, excess or imbalance of the supplies of calories, nutrients, or both, that are available for use in the body.
What I found interesting about this definition is that malnutrition is not caused only by a deficiency, but can also be caused by an excess. Forms of malnutrition is therefore not only under-nutrition or a specific deficiency, it could also be the cause of one nutrient which is in excess, i.e. over-nutrition.
Malnutrition can be classified according to its duration (either acute or chronic) and its causes, which could be direct or indirect. Direct causes may be because of an inadequacy or imbalance, or because the body is not able to properly utilize the food. Indirect causes are things like poverty, the environment, demographic and social / cultural issues.
That is interesting. In richer countries, obesity rates are higher among the lower class people. It's because the fast food and snacks are cheaper foods to eat, so people who are poorer buy those foods. They get fat, yet they lack nutrients.
ReplyDeleteI never knew that fast food and snacks are cheaper in countries like America. In South Africa fast food and snacks are comparatively more expensive than home cooked meals.
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