CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Malnutrition is a broad term which refers to both under nutrition and over nutrition. Individuals are malnourished, or suffer from under nutrition if their diet does not provide them adequate calories and protein for maintenance and growth or they can not fully utilize the food they eat due illness, people are also malnourished, or suffer from over nutrition if they consume too many calories.
Malnutrition can also be defined as the insufficient excessive or imbalance consumption of nutrient. Several different nutrition disorder may develop, depending on which nutrient are lacking or consumed in excess.
According to the world health organization (WHO), malnutrition is the gravest single threat to global public health.
The text will focus more on the under nutrition aspect of malnutrition, rather than over nutrition.
Under nutrition occurs when an individual does not consumed enough food. It may exist the child has poor diet that gives them the wrong balance of basic food groups.
Poor diet may lead to a vitamin or minerals deficiency, among other essential substances, sometimes resulting in scurvy a condition where an individual has a vitamin C (ascorbic acid) deficiency. Through scurvy is a very rare diseases, it still occurs in some patient usually elderly people, alcoholics, or those that live on a diet devoid of fresh fruit and vegetables. Similarly infants or children who are on special or poor diet for any number of economic or social reasons they be prone to scurvy, the most basic principles activities of living organisms are nutrition which provide the raw materials for maintenance of life. This aspect living organism is like a mechanical engine or indeed any other action performing system to make the part operates to keep activities going in short to keep or maintain function.
Obese people, who consume more calories than they need, may suffer from the sub nutrition aspect of malnutrition if their diet lacks the nutrient their body needs for good health of people globally who were malnourished stood at 923 million in 2007, an increase of over 80 million since the 1990-92 basis periods.
The world health organization (WHO) says that malnutrition is by far the largest contributor to child mortality globally, current present in half of all cases.Under weight births and inter uternic growth restriction are responsible for about 2.2 million child deaths annually in the world deficiencies in vitamin A or zinc cause 1 million deaths each year.