Download Geog 412 Malnutrition

Malnutrition: a deficiency or an
excess in the intake of nutrients
and other dietary elements
needed for healthy living.
Dietary Components
• Macronutrients provide the basic building
blocks and energy for cellular growth;
carbohydrates, fat, and proteins.
• Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals
• Some other components include fiber and
cholesterol
Global Malnutrition
• Three major groups:
– the hungry, lacking in calories (1.2 billion)
– the overfed (1.2 billion)
– Those lacking vitamins and minerals (several
billion)
Hunger
• Both the total number and the share of
total children in developing countries that
is hungry has improved overall in past
century
• However, Africa is an exception (~29% of
children are underweight)
• Hunger and food insecurity in developed
countries…
Vitamin and Mineral Malnutrition
• Can be found in overfed, underfed, or those who
do not appear to have a macronutrient deficit
• Iron deficiency is most widespread globally
(~80% of humans), with women and children in
poor countries most afflicted
• Iodine deficiency (leading cause of mental
retardation) and vitamin A deficiency (causes
blindness, death)
• Can be due to lack of dietary diversity, such as
too much reliance on one grain (poor countries),
or processed foods (especially urban societies)
Why so many underfed?
1. Continued, acute caloric deficits are
concentrated in rural areas of poor countries,
where the poor lack sufficient farmland and/or
income to purchase enough food, or are
displaced by violence.
2. The rise in cash cropping has displaced small
farmers into wage labor in many poor countries –
even when total nat’l food production may rise.
3. The transition from subsistence farming to cash
cropping often means that the control over
household food resources shifts from women to
men. As a group, women’s cash management is
focused on household needs, men are more
likely to spend part on vices.
The Overfed
• Most found in developed countries, share of total
populations there is rising in most countries –
though is increasing in urban areas throughout
the world
• The US has highest incidence of overweight and
obesity, but many countries are “contenders”
• Some who are overfed in macronutrients can be
simultaneously suffer from micronutrient
malnutrition (obesity can mask micronutrient
deficiencies)
Why the rise in the overfed? Changes from
traditional diets and eating patterns to less
nutritional alternatives, and changing
livestyles.
1. Healthy traditional diets were generally plant
based (vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts,
and moderate amounts of animal products)
Why the rise in the overfed? (con’t)
2. Modern diets contain more fats and sugars
(which we crave), as the industrial food system
has promoted processed foods which often rely
on low cost fatty and starchy additives. Cheap,
empty calories is the result. (Quality foods may
thus appear relatively more expensive)
3. Rising urbanization - humans are less physically
active in employment and in general.
4. Women’s increased entry into labor force:
a) less time for food prep., b) rising demand for
convenience (processed) foods, and c) less
breastfeeding
Why the rise in the overfed? (con’t)
5. The role of advertising & marketing, including
making unhealthy foods ubiquitous
supersizing
“toxic food environments”: where unprecedented
access to high-calorie foods that are low in
cost, promoted heavily, and good tasting
Diet and Health
• Hunger and micronutrient deficiencies increase
vulnerability to disease – and have greatest
effects on the young and even en utero
• Overeating increases the risks of certain chronic
diseases included most cancers, coronary heart
disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes
• A combination of healthy diet and adequate
exercise can reduce the risk of cancer by 40%.
Social Costs of Malnutrition
• Scholastic performance
• Worker productivity: due to both
macronutrient deficiencies and obesity
• National health expenditures
Nutritional Policy
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Education
Limits on advertising to children
Promotion of breastfeeding
Poverty reduction