Malnutrition and Its Causes

Malnutrition is a dietary deficiency that will lead to poor health conditions. The myth is malnutrition only affects only children. It can occur to people who eat the wrong food or don't eat enough food. It can cause slow down growth, decrease our weight and even lead to wasting. Primarily, people who suffer from malnutrition will either undergo underweight or obese. As per WHO, 1.9 billion adults are obese, and 462 million adults are underweight due to malnutrition. India is home to nearly 25% of hungry people worldwide. It's high time that people get knowledge about what causes malnutrition.

Causes of malnutrition:

· Poor diet quality at a very young age, since young children would be more vulnerable.

· Mothers who are malnourished during pregnancy or breastfeeding can pass on the deficiency to their children.

· Lack of nutritious food; is common among middle and low-income countries.

· People who suffer from Dysphagia (hardships in swallowing food) risk developing malnutrition since they might find eating and chewing difficult or have any other lesions in their mouth.

· War and conflicts impact malnutrition in children. Nearly 426 million children live amid disputes.

· People who lose their appetite. The most common reasons for losing appetite are tumors, depressive illness, cancers, mental illnesses, kidney or liver disease, and other chronic disorders or infections.

· People who have insufficient knowledge about the importance of consuming nutrition tend to consume unhealthy foods with not enough nutrition, minerals, and vitamins.

· Disabled, elderly living alone, students trying to make their own have difficulties preparing a healthy balanced meal and risk malnutrition.

· The elderly living in care facilities can be at a higher risk of diagnosing malnutrition since they might already have a long-term illness that affects their appetite. Also, being among other elderly can cause concomitant mental ailments that affect appetite.

· People who drink alcohol, smoke or use drugs.

· People are diagnosed with Anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder that restricts them from maintaining an adequate diet.

· People diagnosed with Ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease, or Crohn's disease, another type of bowel disease, have difficulties maintaining their diet and suffer from malnutrition.

· People who often undergo diarrhea or vomiting or persistent nausea.

· Specific medications tend to change the human body's capacity to break absorb nutrition might lead to malnutrition.

· Prematurely born babies are also at high risk of being malnourished at a certain point.

Be aware of malnutrition!

Everyone should be aware of malnutrition. It can lead to anemia, preterm birth, blindness, scurvy, stillbirth, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cretinism. So tracking your general nutrition wouldn't be the worst idea. Get yourself tested with the general nutrition test to monitor your nutrition requirements. With Optimists' self-blood testing, you can stay healthy from your privacy!