Reflective Essay On Nutrition

Despite the vast research on nutrition and health, malnutrition is still a major fatality in this present day. Policymakers, social scientist and medical experts have expressed alarm about the growing problem. While most agree that the issue deserves attention, consensus dissolves around how to respond and resolve the problem. Malnourishment continues to be a primary health liability in developing nations such as Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. It is globally the most significant risk factor for illness and death, predominantly with hundreds of millions of pregnant women

Most of the world’s hunger and malnutrition is located in poverty stricken areas. In fact, ninety-eight percent of food deprivation is in developing countries. One of the leading reasons to this, is the high level of poverty in these areas. People living in poverty often don’t have enough money to afford food, and when they do, it generally doesn’t have enough nutrition to keep a human body running properly. On average, 896 million people in developing countries live on fourteen dollars or less a week. This income prevents people from being able to purchase food, causing malnutrition. Hunger is the main devastation of poverty and “is often called the most severe and critical manifestation of poverty”, mainly due to low the low income of most

References Shashidhar, H. (2016, March 10). Malnutrition. Retrieved September 27, 2016, from

In its State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012 report, the United Nations found that nearly 870 million people around the globe are chronically malnourished (Ruttan 6).  Chronic malnourishment weakens the immune system, and it significantly increases people's risk of contracting infectious diseases. As a result of the problem and severity of malnourishment, one of the United Nations top eight goals is to drastically reduce the number of people who suffer from this condition (Johnson 4). During the course of working towards their goal, the U.N. has identified agricultural growth as one of the most effective ways to reduce the prevalence of malnourishment. However, the United Nation has also determined that in order for agricultural growth

If someone suffered from malnutrition, it became hard for them to do normal things, like growing and resisting disease. Malnutrition also had other bad effects. For children, malnutrition slowed physical and mental development. Malnutrition also was a large contributor to disease. Even today, malnutrition is still a problem that needs to be solved.

A balanced nutrition for the first 3 years of a child’s life is extremely important to stabilize their mental and physical health in the future. Starvation is a common problem with poor families. It currently affects 49.1 million families in the United States. Undernutrition is the start to many diseases such as measles and malaria. If the children get these diseases, it is very likely that they don’t have health insurance to cover their illnesses and injuries. 15.8 million children have families who are not consistently stable to feed them. Food pantries are crowded and jam packed with people, that they don’t have enough food for all. The majority of canned foods and other donations are donated during Christmas or Thanksgiving when the food pantries need it the most. Nobody realizes that they need food all throughout the year. Food is the main component to fuel the body to grow and move. Poverty doesn’t just hurt a child physically through starvation, moreover mentally through learning

“What does malnutrition look like? Most of us think of bloated bellies or skin and bones, but the appearance of a hungry child might surprise you. Internationally hunger often stunts growth. Imagine a 9-year-old who appears to be only 5” (“Feed the Children.” Feed). Almost 1 billion kids worldwide live in poverty and 1 in 4 children around the world suffer from malnutrition that stunts growth (“Feed the Children.” Give). This is a very big problem not only in America but everywhere else, malnutrition is the cause of almost half of child deaths each year around the world (“Feed the Children.” Give). It is close to impossible for a malnourished child to recover from diarrhea or to fight off a small illness because their immune system is just simply too weak (“Feed the Children.”

Malnutrition causes nearly half of all deaths in children under five. (Food Aid Foundation.) Millions of children, gone, into thin air. As if they never existed. Millions of stories, millions of futures, all dead, uncared for. More than 795 million people do not have access to enough food to live a healthy lifestyle. (Food Aid Foundation.) Potential scientists, doctors, and musicians will never be able to achieve their goals because they can’t even obtain food. In Haiti, a small central-american country, one out of every three children lose the ability to grow because of malnourishment (Naq, Oishimaya Sen.). The severity of malnourishment in Haiti causes Haitian children to acquire many terminal diseases and blood deficiencies (Naq, Oishimaya

“Some kids don’t get enough to eat, no matter what people tell themselves,” says Anna Quindlen on the topic of child hunger. In the United States child hunger is not as major as it is in other countries but, that doesn’t mean that is doesn’t exist. The problem of child hunger is virtually ignored in first world countries like the U.S. because of how increasingly worse it is in many third world countries such as Africa. Anna notices this problem and wishes to educate others on the topic and inform the reader on the problem.

Sixty percent of the world hunger is women. In developing countries, one out of six infants are born with a low birth weight. sixty-six million primary school aged children go to school hungry, most of which are in Africa with an insane twenty- three million children. World hunger is a continuing problem and to put it in perspective, count to ten and a child dies across the world because of

Malnutrition is defined, by Merriam-Webster, as, “faulty nutrition due to inadequate or unbalance intake of nutrients or their impaired assimilation or utilization.” Malnutrition can affect both those who don’t eat enough and those who eat too much. You can be obese and malnourished due to eating only certain nutrients and not others. The body needs a balance of all nutrients. Prevention of malnutrition starts simply with eating a well balance diet based on the MyPlate recommendations. This helps will help a person eat the correct nutrients in the correct balance to avoid eating too many or too few of any one nutrient. The amount of different types of nutrients depends on the type of lifestyle someone leads. Someone who is more active will need more calories from carbohydrates and protein as compared to a sedentary person. Another way to help prevent malnutrition is education on what nutrients are and why you need them. There is a lot of misinformation out in the world and correct information can help prevent malnutrition. Some misinformation states that certain, necessary nutrients are bad for you, leading to people not eating them. Not eating these nutrients can lead to malnutrition. Malnutrition can lead to wasting of muscles, heart problems, and even death. Treatment depends on the cause of the malnutrition. For a person malnourished due to under-nutrition, the treatment includes increasing calories with a balance of nutrients. If it is bad enough, the nutrition may be supplied through an IV line or possible through a feeding tube (Nordqvist). This ensures the nutrients needed are supplied, along with the calories needed. For a person malnourished due to overconsumption, a diet with balanced nutrients and fewer calories is

Some of the reason why so many children die from poverty each are because of the lack of adequate water, food, sanitation, and hygiene. Malnutrition is a frequently related to poverty. Children don’t get the nutrition they need, in fact many children eat once or twice per day if their parents are able to provide, in some cases parents are not. Children need special cares and healthy meals at least three times a day. Not eating enough or eating unhealthy food may lead to malnutrition or even worse, death. It is tragic to image a child dying because of the lack of sustenance. My plan to change this is creating food banks around developing communities where healthy fruits, vegetable, and balanced meals are created. Malnutrition can be turned around, death

While the world produces enough food to feed over seven billion people, more than one-third of it, approximately 1.3 billion tons, is tossed before getting on the dinner table. Although many do not think about the profound effect wasting food has on themselves, numbers of precious children’s lives are taken by severe poverty, and thus lack of food, every year around the world (“Feed”). An organization called “Feed My Starving Children (FMSC)” has been fighting this issue since 1987 in order alleviate hunger in children less fortunate countries. Its efficient global food assistance system, with unique food production, also contributes to American society by providing fantastic volunteer opportunities to raise one’s spirit, making it one of the best humanitarian efforts in the globe.

Malnutrition is a growing problem in the world. According to Medical News Today, malnutrition can include many things such as undernutrition and even overnutrition. Undernutrition can include not getting enough nutrients and calories in the diet, which can diminish a person’s growth and ability to fight off diseases. Overnutrition is the opposite where too many calories are consumed leading to an imbalance of nutrients in the diet and can also cause some health effects such as obesity. If certain nutrients are missing in the diet or if too many nutrients are in the diet, it can affect nutrition and how the body functions.

Malnutrition is when the body doesn’t receive enough nutrients for proper function. Undernutrition is when one’s body could be underweight, too short for their age, or excessively thin and “receiving fewer calories than the minimum dietary energy requirement” (Withcott & Laposata, 2012). Overnutrition is a form of malnutrition but comes from eating too much, eating junk, lack of physical activities or just eating the wrong foods and the intake too many supplements. “Overnutrition leads to unhealthy weight gain, which leads to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other health problems” (Withcott & Laposata, 2012). One is of the opinion that overnutrition is the most common in the United States. In our textbook by Withcott & Laposata, in the