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malnutrition — English
A long-term human condition when people do not consume adequate volumes (amounts) of all the different nutrients that a healthy body requires. It is critically important in small children since they require a wide variety of nutrients to develop a normal physiology as well as a normal intellectual capacity. Unlike under-nutrition which is a condition found only in the developing countries, malnutrition occurs in both the developed and the developing countries (see “development” and “developing countries”). In the developing world, the traditional wide variety of nutritional food sources on offer in nature is no more available owing to over exploitation by a too large population. Consequently people eat a very restricted diet consisting mostly of a carbohydrate staple substance such as rice, maize, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava (yam) or wheat. In the nearly forgotten past, these people’s ancestors would have consumed a far greater variety of foodstuffs, and would have had a far higher nutritional status than their current day offspring. Nowadays protein-deficiency characterises the diets of billions of people all over the developing world. Apart from the unmistakable physical handicap of the youngsters who have grown up in such conditions, they might also display an intellectual handicap. These people might never have experienced hunger or starvation as such, but they might simply not have received all the protein, vitamins, minerals and other essential components of a properly balanced diet. Nutrient deficiencies suffered during the early years of life, are unfortunately not reversible in later life. On the other side of the continuum, we find the overfed, but undernourished youngsters of the affluent, developed world. These children grow up on very unhealthy, fattening diets (“junk food” or “take-aways”), nearly devoid of the indispensible vitamins and minerals of a proper diet. In the rich, developed countries, the staple diets of many people are rich in carbohydrates and proteins, but more or less devoid of essential vitamins and minerals. A good example of this is the Chinese experience which resulted from the one child policy. In 1979 China introduced a rigorous policy that each married couple may have only one child. Apart from all the other negative ramifications of this short-sighted policy (now defunct), it resulted in obesity which had never been a trait of the Chinese population before. When the single child generation emerged, they were simply overfed as all attention and resources were lavished on them. While starvation is literally threatening billions of people in the developing world, morbid (deadly) obesity is threatening millions of people in the developed world. From a humanitarian and a geographical point of view, the numbers of both the starving and the obese are extremely concerning, and the countries where both of these population characteristics are common, have a very serious problem on hand. South Africa is an excellent example of such a country.
