Child Development and Public Health

Child Development and Public Health

Nutrition/Malnutrition

Nutrition is an important topic to me because nutrition is an important part of development. Nutrition affects everything from bones to emotions/mental function. More people suffer from malnutrition than people may think.1% of children in the US suffer from (Johns Hopkins Children Center, nd). The statistic did not mention the percentage of Adults that suffer from Malnutrition. Many people think that just because a person is not extremely skinny (one of the symptoms) that he/she is well nourished. However, Overweight people may suffer from malnutrition as well.

Malnutrition is defined as: “Malnutrition is the condition that develops when the body is deprived of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients it needs to maintain healthy tissues and organ function” (Johns Hopkins Children Center, nd). Johns Hopkins explains that malnutrition includes undernutrition and overnutrition.  Undernutrition is when there are not enough of the essential nutrients. “Overnutrition occurs in people who eat too much, eat the wrong things, don't exercise enough, or take too many vitamins or other dietary replacements. Risk of overnutrition is increased by being more than 20% overweight or consuming a diet high in fat and salt” (Johns Hopkins Children Center, nd).

Malnutrition is an issue that affects many of developing countries. “1 in 4 or 143 million under-five children in the developing world are still underweight” (UNICEF, 2005). Nutrition issues are being addressed, but there is still room for improvement. Progress has been made with the provisions for Vitamin A, but there are still issues with other micronutrients.

In the future, I plan to open a school. The information that I have learned will be very helpful to me. I know that proper nutrition is essential to healthy development, so I plan to make sure to focus more on nutrition when preparing meals.