Percentage of population affected by malnutrition by country, according to United Nations statistics.

Malnutrition is a general term for a medical condition caused by an improper or insufficient diet. It most often refers to undernutrition resulting from inadequate consumption, poor absorption, or excessive loss of nutrients, but the term can also encompass overnutrition, resulting from overeating or excessive intake of specific nutrients. An individual will experience malnutrition if the appropriate amount of, or quality of nutrients comprising a healthy diet are not consumed for an extended period of time. An extended period of malnutrition can result in starvation, disease, and infection. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 453 pixel Image in higher resolution (1355 × 768 pixel, file size: 57 KB, MIME type: image/png) List of countries by percentage of population suffering from undernourishment. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 453 pixel Image in higher resolution (1355 × 768 pixel, file size: 57 KB, MIME type: image/png) List of countries by percentage of population suffering from undernourishment. ... In nutrition, the diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. ... Overnutrition is a form of malnutrition in which nutrients are oversupplied relative to the amounts required for normal growth, development, and metabolism. ... Link title {{portal|Food} A nutrient is either a chemical element or compound used in an organisms metabolism or physiology. ... Maintaining a healthy diet is the practice of making choices about what to eat with the intent of improving or maintaining good health. ... A female child during the Nigerian-Biafran war of the late 1960s, shown suffering the effects of severe hunger and malnutrition. ...

Malnutrition is the lack of sufficient nutrients to maintain healthy bodily functions and is typically associated with extreme poverty in economically developing countries. It is a common cause of reduced intelligence in parts of the world affected by famine. ^[1] Malnutrition as the result of inappropriate dieting, overeating or the absence of a "balanced diet" is often observed in economically developed countries (eg. as indicated by increasing levels of obesity). The Borgen Project and other poverty-reduction organizations point out that malnutrition can be addressed. Extreme poverty is the most severe state of poverty, where people cannot meet basic needs for survival, such as food, water, clothing, shelter, sanitation, education and health care. ... It has been suggested that Underdevelopment be merged into this article or section. ... Mental retardation is a term for a pattern of persistently slow learning of basic motor and language skills (milestones) during childhood, and a significantly below-normal global intellectual capacity as an adult. ... <nowiki>Insert non-formatted text hereBold text</nowiki>A famine is a social and economic crisis that is commonly accompanied by widespread malnutrition, starvation, epidemic and increased mortality. ... Measuring body weight on a scale Dieting is the practice of ingesting food in a regulated fashion to achieve a particular objective. ... Overeating is a behavior that, while generally not a medical problem, in some cases is a symptom of binge eating disorder or bulimia. ... World map indicating Human Development Index (as of 2004). ...

Most commonly, malnourished people either do not have enough calories in their diet, or are eating a diet that lacks protein, vitamins, or trace minerals. Medical problems arising from malnutrition are commonly referred to as deficiency diseases. Scurvy is a well-known and now rare form of malnutrition, in which the victim is deficient in vitamin C. A calorie is a unit of measurement for energy. ... In nutrition, the diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. ... A representation of the 3D structure of myoglobin, showing coloured alpha helices. ... Retinol (Vitamin A) For the record label, see Vitamin Records A vitamin is an organic compound required in tiny amounts for essential metabolic reactions in a living organism. ... A mineral is a naturally occurring substance formed through geological processes that has a characteristic chemical composition, a highly ordered atomic structure and specific physical properties. ... Many diseases are thought to be directly or indirectly related to nutrition (see Dr. Joel Fuhrman). ... Scurvy (N.Lat. ... This article is about the nutrient. ...

Common forms of malnutrition include protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) and micronutrient malnutrition. PEM refers to inadequate availability or absorption of energy and proteins in the body. Micronutrient malnutrition refers to inadequate availability of some essential nutrients such as vitamins and trace elements that are required by the body in small quantities. Micronutrient deficiencies lead to a variety of diseases and impair normal functioning of the body. Deficiency in micronutrients such as Vitamin A reduces the capacity of the body to resist diseases. Deficiency in iron, iodine and vitamin A is widely prevalent and represent a major public health challenge. An array of afflictions ranging from stunted growth, reduced intelligence and various cognitive abilities, reduced sociability, reduced leadership and assertiveness, reduced activity and energy, reduced muscle growth and strength, and poorer health overall are directly implicated to nutrient deficiencies. Also, another, although rare, effect of malnutrition is black spots appearing on the skin. Nigerian child with kwashiorkor Protein-energy malnutrition (PEM), also known as protein-calorie malnutrition, is a malnutrition and deficiency syndrome in organisms, especially humans caused by the inadequate intake of macronutrients through food in their diet. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... A representation of the 3D structure of myoglobin, showing coloured alpha helices. ... Micronutrients for plants: There are about eight nutrients essential to plant growth and health that are only present in very small quantities. ... Retinol (Vitamin A) For the record label, see Vitamin Records A vitamin is an organic compound required in tiny amounts for essential metabolic reactions in a living organism. ... A mineral is a naturally occurring substance formed through geological processes that has a characteristic chemical composition, a highly ordered atomic structure and specific physical properties. ... For other uses, see Iron (disambiguation). ... General Name, Symbol, Number iodine, I, 53 Chemical series halogens Group, Period, Block 17, 5, p Appearance violet-dark gray, lustrous Standard atomic weight 126. ... Vitamin A is an essential human nutrient. ... Public health is concerned with threats to the overall health of a community based on population health analysis. ...

Hunger is the normal psychological response brought on by the physiological condition of needing food. Hunger can also affect the mental state of a person, and is often used as a metonym for general undernourishment. Hunger is a feeling experienced when the glycogen level of the liver falls below a threshold, usually followed by a desire to eat. ... In rhetoric, metonymy is the substitution of one word for another word with which it is associated. ...

Politics

The orange ribbon—an awareness ribbon for malnutrition.

As of 2006, malnutrition continues to be a worldwide problem. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, "850 million people worldwide were undernourished in 1999 to 2005, the most recent years for which figures are available" and the number of malnourished people has recently been increasing. An orange awareness ribbon is used to raise awareness of malnutrition in the world.^[2]It should be noted that FAO's use of the term 'undernutrition' is not the same as most people's understanding of malnutrition--the latter case suggests a thin or stunted individual, usually a measured condition in children under 5 years of age; the former (FAO's definition) refers to the amount of food available in a country at national level, compared with how many people live in that country. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Awareness ribbons are short pieces of ribbon folded into a loop, or representations of such, which are used in the United States, Canada, Australia, UK and other parts of the world as a way for the wearer to make a subtle statement of support for a cause or issue. ... 2006 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. ... The foundation of the U.N. The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. ... Awareness ribbons are short pieces of ribbon folded into a loop, or representations of such, which are used in the United States, Canada, Australia, UK and other parts of the world as a way for the wearer to make a subtle statement of support for a cause or issue. ...

There is a range of opinions as to why this problem is so persistent. Organizations such as Food First raise the issue of food sovereignty and claim that every country on earth (with the possible minor exceptions of some city-states) has sufficient agricultural capacity to feed its own people, but that the "free trade" economic order associated with such institutions as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank prevent this from happening. At the other end of the spectrum, the World Bank itself claims to be part of the solution to malnutrition, claiming that the best way for countries to succeed in breaking the cycle of poverty and malnutrition is to build export-led economies that will give them the financial means to buy foodstuffs on the world market. Food First, also known as the Institute for Food and Development Policy, is an Oakland-based, member-supported, nonprofit, self-described as a peoples think tank and education-for-action center, founded in 1975 by Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins. ... Food sovereignty is a term originally coined by members of Via Campesina in 1996 to refer to a concept advocated by a number of farmers, peasants, and fishermens organizations, namely the claimed right of peoples to define their own food and agriculture, in contrast to having food largely subject... Free trade is an economic concept referring to the selling of products between countries without tariffs or other trade barriers. ... “IMF” redirects here. ... ...

Amartya Sen won his 1998 Nobel Prize in part for his work suggesting that famine is not typically the product of a lack of food; rather, famine may arise from problems in food distribution networks or from governmental policies in the developing world. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... The Nobel Prizes (Swedish: ) are awarded for Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Physiology or Medicine. ...

The politics of food trade and food security is often difficult to grasp. Many people are keen to believe that sending food aid to the poor of the world is a worthy idea, and that each country should produce their own food. These concepts should be taken with a grain of salt. The idea that producing all the food internally increases food security and that foreign trade increases food insecurity and malnutrition is against the facts. Countries that have become more open to international trade in recent years (e.g. China, Vietnam or Peru) have greatly reduced the prevalence of undernourishment as measured by the FAO (food energy consumption below acceptable minimum) or as measured by the World Health Organization (WHO) by the percentage of children under 5 who are stunted, wasted or underweight.^{[citation needed]} Countries that remained closed to external trade (e.g. North Korea) have not improved or have worsened their food situation. Some anti-globalization groups insist on "food sovereignty", i.e. the idea that each country should be physically self sufficient in every food item consumed by their people; by that account the US, the UK, Sweden or Belgium, and in fact almost all countries in the world would be quite food insecure, and a desert nation like Saudi Arabia should be in urgent need of international help and (with its current population) would not be viable as a country at all. Possible meanings: Faro Airport (Portugal) Federation of Astrobiology Organizations Financial Aid Office Food and Agriculture Organization This page expands a three-character combination which might be any or all of: an abbreviation, an acronym, an initialism, a word in English, or a word in another language. ... Look up who in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

One policy adopted in recent decades to alleviate world malnutrition is food aid, i.e. the physical donation of food from rich to poor countries. From the rich donor countries' point of view, this is a suitable way to reduce excess supply created by domestic agricultural subsidies, stabilizing farm prices in rich countries, even if the cost of supplying the food to its final beneficiaries is often disproportionately high. Food aid may come for short-term emergencies (natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts and floods, or human-made like war and refugee flows) or in the form of a long-term program for an extended period. From the viewpoint of recipient countries, the value of food-aid depends on the form it takes. Emergency food aid is welcome, though aid in cash may also be welcome because the food may often be purchased locally in zones not affected by the emergency, thus benefitting local farmers. Long-term foreign food aid, instead, may discourage local production and distort markets. Long-term food-aid programs should be gradually replaced by aid oriented towards economic development, ultimately enabling poor people to become independent and earn enough income to purchase their food (either locally produced or commercially imported, whichever is more convenient). Part of that economic development would probably encourage local farmers to shift their cropping patterns in favour of cash crops for the domestic or world markets. The World Food Programme (WFP) is an agency of the United Nations which distributes food commodities to support development projects, to long-term refugees and displaced persons and as emergency food assistance in situations of natural and man-made disasters. ... An agricultural subsidy is a governmental subsidy paid to farmers to supplement their income, help manage the supply of agricultural commodities, and bolster the market price of commodities. ... Mount Pinatubo eruption, 1991 A natural disaster is the consequence of a natural hazard (e. ... For other uses, see War (disambiguation). ... Look up Market in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Recognising the inherent potential of the micro-alage Spirulina (Spirulina Platensis) to counter malnutrition and its severe negative impacts at multiple levels of the society especially in the developing and Least Developed Countries (LDC), the international community affirmed its firm conviction by joining hands to form the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition, IIMSAM^[3]. The current version of the article or section reads like an advertisement. ...

Spirulina because of its easy accessibility, affordability and capability to assimilate in the human body is a potent tool, not only to counter and combat malnutrition but also to stem the loss of human lives especially of children and enrich human capital. The current version of the article or section reads like an advertisement. ...

IIMSAM’s Goodwill Ambassadors^[4] from across the globe like eminent footballer Diego Maradona, fashion designer Carolina Herrera, musician Chris de Burgh and the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Tushar Gandhi of the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation among others, help spread the mandate of the organisation and aspire to build a consensus to make Spirulina a key-driver to achieve food security and bridge the health divide throughout the world. Diego Armando Maradona (born October 30, 1960) is an Argentine former footballer. ... Carolina Herrera (Carolina Pacanins Niño de Herrera Guevara). ... Chris de Burgh (born Christopher John de Burgh Davison on October 15, 1948) is an Irish musician and songwriter. ... Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Gujarati: , Hindi: , IAST: mohandās karamcand gāndhÄ«, IPA: ) (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948), was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. ... Tushar Gandhi is a great-grandson of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Indian who helped India gain independence. ... The current version of the article or section reads like an advertisement. ...

Causes of Malnutrition

• Famine
• Poverty
• Digestive disease
• Malabsorption
• Depression
• Anorexia nervosa
• Bulimia nervosa
• Untreated diabetes mellitus
• Fasting
• Coma
• Alcoholism and other certain drug addictions
• Over-consumption of fat and sugar
• Overpopulation^[5]
• Industrial food processing

<nowiki>Insert non-formatted text hereBold text</nowiki>A famine is a social and economic crisis that is commonly accompanied by widespread malnutrition, starvation, epidemic and increased mortality. ... A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows what he found. ... All diseases that pertain to the gastrointestinal tract are labelled as digestive diseases. ... Malabsorption is the state of impaired absorption of nutrients in the small intestine. ... In everyday language depression refers to any downturn in mood, which may be relatively transitory and perhaps due to something trivial. ... For the symphonic black metal band, see Anorexia Nervosa (band) For other uses, see Anorexia Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes an eating disorder characterized by low body weight and body image distortion with an obsessive fear of gaining weight. ... Bulimia nervosa, commonly known as bulimia, is an eating disorder. ... For the disease characterized by excretion of large amounts of very dilute urine, see diabetes insipidus. ... Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. ... In medicine, a coma (from the Greek koma, meaning deep sleep) is a profound state of unconsciousness. ... Alcoholism is the consumption of, or preoccupation with, alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the drinkers normal personal, family, social, or work life, and may lead to physical or mental harm. ... Drug addiction, or dependency is the compulsive use of drugs, to the point where the user has no effective choice but to continue use. ... For other uses, see FAT. Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and largely insoluble in water. ... This article is about sugar as food and as an important and widely-traded commodity. ... Map of countries by population density (See List of countries by population density. ... Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food for consumption by humans or animals. ...

Statistics

Number of undernourished people (million) in 2001-2003, according to the FAO, the following countries had 5 million or more undernourished people [1]: Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. ...

Note: This table measures "undernourishment", as defined by FAO, and represents the number of people consuming (on average for years 2001 to 2003) less than the minimum amount of food energy (measured in kilocalories per capita per day) necessary for the average person to stay in good health while performing light physical activity. It is a conservative indicator that does not takes into account the extra needs of people performing extrenous physical activity, nor seasonal variations in food consumption or other sources of variability such as inter-individual differences in energy requirements. Possible meanings: Faro Airport (Portugal) Federation of Astrobiology Organizations Financial Aid Office Food and Agriculture Organization This page expands a three-character combination which might be any or all of: an abbreviation, an acronym, an initialism, a word in English, or a word in another language. ...

Malnutrition and undernourishment are cumulative or average situations, and not the work of a single day's food intake (or lack thereof). This table does not represent the number of people who "went to bed hungry today."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that in 2003, only 1 out of 200 U.S. households with children became so severely food insecure that any of the children went hungry even once during the year. A substantially larger proportion of these same households (3.8 percent) had adult members who were hungry at least one day during the year because of their households' inability to afford enough food.[2]

Effects

An extended period of malnutrition can result in starvation or deficiency diseases such as scurvy. Malnutrition increases the risk of infection and infectious disease; for example, it is a major risk factor in the onset of active tuberculosis.^[6] A female child during the Nigerian-Biafran war of the late 1960s, shown suffering the effects of severe hunger and malnutrition. ... Many diseases are thought to be directly or indirectly related to nutrition (see Dr. Joel Fuhrman). ... Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis. ...

Malnutrition appears to increase activity and movement in many animals - for example an experiment on spiders showed increased activity and predation in starved spiders, resulting in larger weight gain.^[7] This pattern is seen in many animals, including humans while sleeping.^[8] It even occurs in rats with their cerebral cortex or stomachs completely removed.^[9] Increased activity on hamster wheels occurred when rats were deprived not only of food, but also water or B vitamins such as thiamine^[10] This response may increase the animal's chance of finding food, though it has also been speculated the emigration response relieves pressure on the home population.^[8] Diversity 111 families, 40,000 species Suborders Mesothelae Mygalomorphae Araneomorphae  See table of families Wikispecies has information related to: Spiders Spiders are predatory invertebrate animals that have two body segments, eight legs, no chewing mouth parts and no wings. ... Predator and Prey redirect here. ... This article is about modern humans. ... Species 50 species; see text *Several subfamilies of Muroids include animals called rats. ... Location of the cerebral cortex Slice of the cerebral cortex, ca. ... Photo of a hamster wheel The related term squirrel cage may refer to: a squirrel cage rotor a squirrel cage fan or blower Hamster wheels are toys introduced into the habitats of usually rodent pets. ... The B vitamins are eight water-soluble vitamins that play important roles in cell metabolism. ... For the similarly spelled nucleic acid, see Thymine Thiamine or thiamin, also known as vitamin B1, is one of the B vitamins. ...

See also

• List of countries by percentage of population suffering from undernourishment
• Anorexia nervosa
• Auxology
• Cachexia
• Copenhagen Consensus
• Dehydration
• Essential nutrient
• Famine
• Famine response
• Hunger
• Illnesses related to poor nutrition
• Nutrition
• Poverty
• List of famines
• United Nations World Food Programme
• Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-alage Spirulina Against Malnutrition

Map of world undernourishment levels by country. ... For the symphonic black metal band, see Anorexia Nervosa (band) For other uses, see Anorexia Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes an eating disorder characterized by low body weight and body image distortion with an obsessive fear of gaining weight. ... Auxology is a meta-term covering the study of all aspects of human physical growth; though it is also a fundamental of biology generally. ... Copenhagen Consensus is a project which seeks to establish priorities for advancing global welfare using methodologies based on the theory of welfare economics. ... Dehydration (hypohydration) is the removal of water (hydro in ancient Greek) from an object. ... An essential nutrient is a nutrient required for normal body functioning that cannot be synthesized by the body. ... <nowiki>Insert non-formatted text hereBold text</nowiki>A famine is a social and economic crisis that is commonly accompanied by widespread malnutrition, starvation, epidemic and increased mortality. ... The famine response is how the body of a human or animal responds to malnutrition. ... Hunger is a feeling experienced when the glycogen level of the liver falls below a threshold, usually followed by a desire to eat. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The updated USDA food pyramid, published in 2005, is a general nutrition guide for recommended food consumption for humans. ... A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows what he found. ... This is an incomplete list of major famines, ordered by date. ... The World Food Programme (WFP) is an agency of the United Nations which distributes food commodities to support development projects, to long-term refugees and displaced persons and as emergency food assistance in situations of natural and man-made disasters. ...

References

The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... May 14 is the 134th day of the year (135th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... George Wald (November 18, 1906–April 12, 1997) was an American scientist who is best known for his work with pigments in the retina. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... May 14 is the 134th day of the year (135th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition (IIMSAM)
• The Borgen Project, Poverty reduction throught political accountability.
• Reports on World Nutrition Situation The annual reports prepared by UN Standing Committee on Nutrition contain detailed information on common challenges, extent of malnutrition, efforts being taken to address them, and a wealth of other useful information.
• The Merck Manual - Malnutrition
• Physical Growth & Nutritional status
• World Hunger Map (from United Nations World Food Programme)
• FAO country statistics
• HungryKids Info on malnutrition from HungryKids
• Fighting Hunger and poverty in Ethiopia (Peter Middlebrook)
• Meds & Food for Kids - Fighting malnutrition in Haiti one child at a time.
• Malnutrition