Malnutrition is a problem that defies pat solutions. It has many roots such as inadequate food supply, limited purchasing power, poor health conditions, and incomplete knowledge about nutrition. These causes often combine in different ways over time and place. In any combination, they are often aggravated by uncertain political commitment.
Malnutrition is every body’s business, but nobody’s main responsibility. The problem of malnutrition was recognized to be substantial, and the effectiveness of nutrition measures in reducing the number of deaths, decreasing the severity of childhood infection, and preventing forms of blindness, anemia-induced lethargy and other handicaps was reasonably well established and was in itself regarded as sufficient justification for investment in better nutrition.
The term malnutrition generally refers both to under nutrition and over nutrition, but in this context, we use the term to refer solely to a deficiency of nutrition (lack of one or two nutrients in a meal). Many factors can cause malnutrition, most of which relate to poor diet or severe and repeated infections, particularly in underprivileged populations. Inadequate diet and disease, in turn, are closely linked to the general standard of living, the environmental conditions, and whether a population is able to meet its basic needs such as food, housing and health care. Mal-nutrition is a disease condition that results when the nutrients are not consumed in the correct proportion as required by the body. Good diet helps for good intellectual development and growth, and also for the maintenance of good health.