Malnutrition: The other end of the spectrum

On the other end of the obesity epidemic there is undernutrition, which includes low weight-for-height otherwise known as wasting. A growing child must receive sufficient and adequate food, or their body weight will be temporarily reduced. Undernutrition also includes low height-for-age, which is stunting. If nutritional deprivation or illness are repeated or prolonged, the result will be growth failure. Another form of undernutrition is low weight for age, which is underweightness.

"Fifty-four percent of mortality in children under 5 in the whole world is attributed to small weight for age"

(Peña and Bacallao 2002, 243).

Poverty affects nutrition throughout a person's life, and manifests itself in various ways, including increased susceptibility to infectious and noncommunicable diseases, a reduced work capacity and productivity, a lower learning capacity, and an increased vulnerability to environmental risks (Peña and Bacallao 2002, 243). These individuals are not only more prone to illness, but also often employed in the secondary labour market, where low wages translate into inadequate nutrition, high levels of stress and the inability to have timely medical services.

Malnutrition affects people from when they are developing fetuses, to their early infancy through adolescence and into adulthood. The individual risk and transgenerational implications of poor health and poor productivity affect families in multiple ways.

Stunting affects more than thirty percent of preschool children (Peña and Bacallao 2002, 244). Furthermore, adolescence comes with a heavy increase in nutritional demand which is often not satisfied in the poor, whom have to already fight the effects of deprivation throughout childhood and inaccessibility to adequate nutrition and sanitation. Poor women often are still growing during their first pregnancy due to a longer growth period and often have to compete for nutrients with the developing fetus. These women who are not fully developed at reproductive ages are at high risk of having low birth weight babies, with a lower chance of survival than normal weight babies. Furthermore, if the woman has a low height for age or low preconceptional weight, this risk is heightened (Peña and Bacallao 2002, 244). Malnutrition, which is frequent in low-income, low-education groups, can carry on throughout pregnancy, where poor nutrition may lead to retarded growth and low birth weight. These newborns have greater mortality risk, are less resistant to infectious diseases, and are more likely to acquire chronic illnesses. Thus, poor pregnant women suffering from malnutrition create a cycle of malnutrition, with intergenerational undernutrition contributing to illness and greatly affecting people's physical and mental development.

Malnutrition during a child's first year has dire consequences. Poor children without access to adequate nutrition are more likely to have less access to nutritional information. Poor families who are struggling to provide the necessities of life are often unable to provide adequate nutrition in this first year, affecting the intellectual capacity of the child, with manifestations of this appearing two or three years later (Peña and Bacallao 2002, 243). Frequent infections during in preschool children often return when the child is in an older grade in school, taking a toll on school attendance and performance. 

A short video on the health effects of malnutrition:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3abZswA5XY