Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess (too high an intake), or in the wrong proportions.
A number of different nutrition disorders may arise, depending on which nutrients are under or overabundant in the diet.
The World Health Organization cites malnutrition as the greatest single threat to the world's public health. Improving nutrition is widely regarded as the most effective form of aid. Emergency measures include providing deficient micronutrients through fortified sachet powders, such as peanut butter, or directly through supplements. The famine relief model increasingly used by aid groups calls for giving cash or cash vouchers to the hungry to pay local farmers instead of buying food from donor countries, often required by law, as it wastes money on transport costs.
There are various methods used to gauge the degree of malnutrition, including the Gomez Classification. This classifies as 1st, 2nd or 3rd degree malnutrition according to the percentage of normal body weight a person is.
Long term measures include fostering nutritionally dense agriculture by increasing yields, while making sure negative consequences affecting yields in the future are minimized.
Recent efforts include aid to farmers. However, World Bank strictures restrict government subsidies for farmers, while the spread of fertilizer use may adversely affect ecosystems and human health and is hampered by various civil society groups.
This text uses material from Wikipedia licensed under CC BY-SA
Latest Spotlight News
(Medical Xpress)—Estrogen stimulates the production of the body's own antibiotic and strengthens the cells in the urinary tract, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet. The results, which are published in the ...
Antibiotics increase eczema risk in children, study reveals
(Medical Xpress)—Use of antibiotics in early life may increase the risk of developing eczema by up to 40 per cent, according to a new study led by King's College London researchers, published today in the ...
Animal study shows promising path to prevent epilepsy
Duke Medicine researchers have identified a receptor in the nervous system that may be key to preventing epilepsy following a prolonged period of seizures.
Efficient signal transmission at sensory system synapses
(Medical Xpress)—Neurophysiologist like to think of neurons as communicating with spikes. If that were the whole story, it might be possible to imagine spike codes which could then be used to estimate the ...
A shot in the arm for old antibiotics: Silver boosts antibiotics
Slipping bacteria some silver could give old antibiotics new life, scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University reported June 19 in Science Translational Me ...
Fate of the heart: Researchers track cellular events leading to cardiac regeneration
In a study published in the June 19 online edition of the journal Nature, a scientific team led by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine visually monitored the dynami ...
Scientists create way to see structures that store memories in living brain
Oscar Wilde called memory "the diary that we all carry about with us." Now a team of scientists has developed a way to see where and how that diary is written.
Validating maps of the brain's resting state
Kick back and shut your eyes. Now stop thinking. You have just put your brain into what neuroscientists call its resting state. What the brain is doing when an individual is not focused on the outside world ...
Mindfulness – a mental training that develops sustained attention that can change the ways people think, act and feel – could reduce symptoms of stress and depression and promote wellbeing among school children, according ...
New MERS virus spreads easily, deadlier than SARS, researchers show
A mysterious new respiratory virus that originated in the Middle East spreads easily between people and appears more deadly than SARS, doctors reported Wednesday after investigating the biggest outbreak in ...
