There are several factors causing malnutrition
We can start with ‘Undermalnutrition’
- Illiteracy- among the reasons one may suffer from undernutrtion. One does not know what a balance diet is ,what it entails and the importance of a healthy diet.
- Poor infrastructure – where people live in remote areas and have poor infrastructure that people cannot be able to access all the foods, so end up having access to just a certain type of food like maybe proteins only that leads to protein energy malnutrtion.
- Poor absorption – this is where the body ‘s does not breakdown foods eaten or digested completely, it can be conditions that involves the nervous system or the digestive system. This leads to undermalnutrtion as one cannot acquire nutrients it needs sufficiently.
- Underlying conditions – conditions that are chornic like HIV and AIDS and cancer usually bring the body’s immune system down, and causes loss of appetite, this causes the body to lack nutrients , so they are often on fluid therapy to replace some of the nutrients lost
- Harsh weather condtions that cannot sustain growing of all crops like in a desert , where people cannot grow crops and cannot afford irrigation also leads to undernutrirtion as most people opt to eat what is available .
- Poverty – This is the leading cause of malnutrition in the world, especially in the 3rd world countries. Families have little or no income to support they families, so end up not affording a well balanced diet, suppliments or even medication. Children are brought to the hospital being severly dehydrated and malnutrition as they have now no other choice, most kids pass away sadly.
Factors leading to overnutrtion;
- Genetics- this where there is a familial history of being obese
- Lifestyle – where people live sedentary lifestyle eating junk foods and cannot afford to cook on their own healthy foods
- Access to a certain type of mineral like iron that can lead to iron poisoning.
- Stress – when one is faced with stress it can lead to stress eating and can lead to excess gaining of weight.
