Malnutrition

Malnutrition

Malnutrition is a state resulted from deficiency or excess supply of essential nutrients. It is the root cause of any infectious disease that occurs especially in children. It can occur at any age, but most frequently it occurs in children.

Cause of Malnutrition

Malnutrition is the lack of appropriate amount of nutrients in food.

It is due to the following causes: -

1. Lack of food: Inability to consume either required quantity of food or due to low production or lack of purchasing power, causes malnutrition.

Lack of knowledge: Most of the people do not know about the importance of home-made food with high-quality nutritive value and they are lured to instant and expensive foods from the market. Those instant foods have low nutritive value which may cause malnutrition.

1. Diseases: Various diseases like roundworm may cause malnutrition because the patient feels the loss of appetite. Indigestion also causes malnutrition because of the lack of necessary absorption of micronutrients from the food.

Improper storing: Lack of proper storing and cooking causes malnutrition because nutrients of food are destroyed with the improper storing and over cooking.

1. Food adulteration: For the sake of money, shopkeeper sells the foods mixed with poor quality foods. It is adulteration. It is harmful to the health and person cannot get proper nutrition.

Types of Malnutrition:

Malnutrition can be classified into three groups on the basis of its severity. They are as follows:

1. Simple malnutrition: There is no special symptom of simple malnutrition. It is justa condition of lack of weight for height. It can be detected by taking the weight.
2. Median malnutrition: This type of malnutrition especially suffers the children under 5 years old. When the children continuously quarrel and get irritated, they are in median malnutrition.
3. Severe malnutrition: Kwashiorkor and Marasmus are two types of malnutrition according to the severity of malnutrition.

General symptoms of malnutrition:

1. Regular weeping, crying
2. Feeling irritation
3. Underweight in children
4. Wrinkled skin especially in happy and calf of leg

Things to remember

• Malnutrition is a state resulted from deficiency or excess supply of essential nutrients.
• Malnutrition can be classified into three groups on the basis of its severity. They are simple malnutrition, medium malnutrition and severe malnutrition.
• Lack of proper storing and cooking causes malnutrition because nutrients of food are destroyed with the improper storing and over cooking.
• Kwashiorkor and Marasmus are two types of malnutrition according to the severity of malnutrition.

• It includes every relationship which established among the people.
• There can be more than one community in a society. Community smaller than society.
• It is a network of social relationships which cannot see or touched.
• common interests and common objectives are not necessary for society.

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