Hunger and Malnutrition

Food is the basic necessity of life. Food provides us energy and nutrients required for various body functions, growth and physical activities. So it is essential that we have to eat a proper balanced diet to keep us healthy and fit. Balanced diet comprises of proper proportion of grains, pulses, vegetables, fruits, oil, ghee, butter and water. While cooking food, care should be taken to include proper proportion of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals and finally the elixir of our lives, the WATER. After all, “We are what we eat”.

If the diet is balanced with all the components of food then it is a nutritious food. Following are the benefits of eating Balanced diet daily:

• It helps us to lead a healthy and meaningful life.
• It prevents diseases and improves our immune system.
• It reduces body fat, lowers bad cholesterol and controls weight.
• It helps the body in meeting the nutritional needs so that there is no starvation for various organs of the body
• It improves the functioning of various essential organs of the body.
• It helps us to get proper sleep.
• It helps us to lead good and quality life that is free from stress and fatigue.
• It helps us in maintaining our energy level at optimum level throughout the day
• It also helps us to reduce our medical bill and saves our money.
• It extends old age and increases longevity.

· It promotes overall wellbeing and helps us to contribute to the society and to the nation.

The questions here are whether all the people across the globe are able to eat safe and a proper balanced diet? Are they taking care to prepare the balanced diet daily? Are they getting enough food to eat? According to the recent survey more than 925 millions are hungry in the world today. There is yet another startling fact that 10.9 million Children under five die in developing countries each year. Malnutrition and hunger related diseases cause 60 per cent of the death of children. Why? What causes hunger for a very large population? But anyway this is current critical problem still to be resolved.

Hunger means the state of wanting and craving for food. Hunger also denotes the state of scarcity of food. It is certain that hunger has affected the well being of the people, nation and the world. If we watch the map of hunger across the world and observe carefully it is very clear that hunger manifests in several regions and those regions do not have proper access to the developing world, where food is in abundance.

The hunger affected areas are draughted with less rainfall and it is difficult to grow food crops required for the people. Water scarcity in several hunger prone regions has resulted in scarcity of food. Lack of proper transportation to the hunger prone areas has deprived them food. Extreme and severe climatic conditions and after effect of certain natural disasters are also playing a crucial role in causing hunger. Poverty is the prime cause of hunger. People are poor because proper industrialization is not achieved in those areas.

Climate change due to global warming and environmental disorders have also contributed to the world hunger problem. Sowing pattern, long summers, shift in the rainy season, lack of rainfall or no rainfall and other weather related problems have accelerated hunger. On the one hand there is an increase in the global population and on the other hand there is a remarkable decrease in the resources, especially agricultural. The common scenarios throughout the world are diseases due to vitamin deficiency, micronutrient deficiency and protein energy malnutrition. Several deaths of millions of people due to hunger related diseases and malnutrition. In short, Hunger and Malnutrition coexist and are the two sides of the same coin.

Malnutrition is a condition in which certain micro and macro nutrients are either lacking or are in excess. It is a universal problem and affects all age groups. It is commonly prevalent in all the hunger prone regions because it is caused by lower food intake and lower intake of micro and macro nutrients. Of late it is becoming a global epidemic. Therefore, this problem should be tackled carefully otherwise it will lead to the destruction of humanity.

The consequences of Malnutrition are disability, discomfort, diseases and death. It affects every organ of the body. The symptoms of Malnutrition are weight loss, weakness, dry skin, brittle nails, bone and joint pain, anemia and retarded growth especially in children. All these symptoms will slowly transform into diseases if not taken care of. Some of the commonly prevalent diseases of insufficient food and poor nutrition are:

· Protein Energy Malnutrition: This condition refers to inadequate protein intake. This condition causes fatty liver i.e. kwashiorkor, stunted growth, chronic diarrhea. This type of malnutrition is common in children. If the problem is acute then it may result in the death of children.

· Deficiency of Micronutrients: Vitamin A deficiency causes eye defects and blindness. It also causes several illnesses and death from infections. Iodine deficiency is due to malfunctioning of thyroid glands, causes goiter, mental retardation and brain damage and fertility problems. Iron deficiency causes nutritional anaemia, stunted growth and very low resistance to infections. Deficiency of sodium and potassium also causes several imbalances in the functional life of a person.

· Overeating is also a nutritional risk. This causes Type II Diabetes, High Cholesterol, Cardio vascular problems and obesity. This is common health problem in developing countries.

Malnutrition is a global epidemic. It is very important that proper measures are taken to curb it. One such is educating people about the importance of eating well balanced diet everyday. It will not only cut the cost of medical bills but also help them to maintain a good quality of life. Educating the people about the preparation of good quality foods, and safe foods without contamination should be undertaken by healthcare professionals periodically. There is a need to emphasize that Food is Medicine and Medicine is Food.

In the hunger prone areas fortified foods should be made available at subsidized cost. Advanced techniques of agricultural practices like Bio-farming methods, etc, should be adopted to fight against Hunger and Malnutrition.