Nutritional disorders: An overview

Abstract

Nutrition has been identified as a primary factor in human development, not only as a conditioning factor for health but also as a determinant of quality of life and overall development. Access to adequate quantity of quality foods is a basic human right and a necessary precondition for good health. Conditions such as Starvation, which may be total or partial, affects the functioning of key organ systems such as respiratory, locomotor, muscular/skeletal, gastrointestinal, immune system, and related inflammatory response. Nutritional disorders manifested as Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM), Anaemia, iodine deficiency, Vitamin deficiency, etc affects not only mortality and morbidity figures but also physical growth, intellectual development, school performance of children, effectiveness of education, productivity of labour, and virtually all aspects of human and social development. Development efforts on a global basis are strongly recommended which include measures to improve nutrition and food security as an important component of poverty alleviation. Efforts are to be made for improving the health conditions among the population, so as to improve the overall wellness of nation. Introduction The word "nutrition", first appeared in 1551, is derived from the Latin word "nutrire", meaning "to nourish." Today, we define nutrition as "the sum of all processes involved in how organisms obtain nutrients, metabolize them, and use them to support all of life's processes". Adequate nutrition is necessary for the optimal functioning of human body, and severe nutritional inadequacy can lead to disease and even death. Nutritional status in children is considered a good indicator for measuring the overall well-being of a society. The inadequate quantity of one or more nutrients results in many disturbances in the body leading to nutritional disorders. It reflects the state of malnutrition. The most common cause of malnutrition is inadequate food intake. Factors known to increase the malnutrition status include hunger, poverty, ignorance, faulty feeding practices, lack of proper water supply and poor hygiene etc. These factors are governed by number of socioeconomic , political and environmental factors, and most of them can be prevented as well as modified. Hunger means a dietary intake that does not provide the quantity of food that is needed for growth and activity and the maintenance of good health. It is estimated that globally more than 800 million people suffer from malnutrition and in developing countries more than 20 per cent of the total population are hungry [1] .