Nutrition and Illness Issue in Global Context - Research Paper Example

? Nutrition and Illness Introduction Nutrition has been one of the major issues that affect the international community. There is a direct relationship between poor nutrition and chronic diseases or illnesses. This nutrition problem affects both the developed and developing countries. The international consultation on nutrition and health did recognize that, firstly, there is a growing trend in the epidemic of many chronic diseases that keep afflicting the international community, and, secondly, these epidemics are linked to poor nutrition, dietary issues, as well as the changing lifestyles people take up in many countries around the world. There has been enough epidemiological evidence that shows the risk factors and nutritional levels. In the past decades, there have been rapid changes in the scientific world; these developments have shown that nutrition plays a very crucial role in the prevention and control of morbidity and serious illnesses in people which do not originate from communicable diseases. There are various factors that have played a role in the poor dietary status of the people around the world. These have been attributed to natural calamities, droughts that have hit many places across the world, environmental changes that have led to unpredictable weather patterns, rapid changes in lifestyles and diets, urbanization, economic forms of development, as well as globalization of the market. These issues and others are posing a serious threat to the nutritional status of people; in this category, developing countries have been reported to be worse hit by the trend (Lipton, 2001). One would expect that standards of living which have improved, expansion of food availability, diversification of food options, and access to other services should be good for the maintenance of high nutritional diet. However, this is not the case. There have been reported very significant negative impacts that have resulted from inappropriate patterns in dietary; they have decreased the physical activity levels of the people and also led to a corresponding rise in the chronic diseases that are related to diet. Poor people or those who live below the threshold of one USD per day are most affected. Food production and sale have shifted from the local settings to an international market arena where global food cultures are being taken up in place of local preferences. As such, people do not pay a lot of attention to the nutritional value of what they eat (Jacobson & Silverglade). Many could attribute this to the every-demanding life where people have new challenges and new demands that must be met daily and, thus, do not take time to think about what they consume in terms of nutrients. Other attribute of this trend to the job market gives people less time to perform their personal tasks, such as cooking a good meal, at home. Changes in the world food economy have also been reflected in the dietary patterns being currently experienced. There has been a marked increase in the consumption of foods that are considered energy–dense with high content of fats; the worst being thee saturated fats with low carbohydrates that are not refined. When these patterns are put together with the decline experienced in the expenditure of energy in relation to the kind of sedentary lives that many people, especially in white collar jobs, lead, the only thing that remains is disaster in terms of illnesses that turn out to be very chronic. Nutrition gets even more complicated when sedentary kind of life comes into the picture. This paper takes a keen look at the nutrition and illness issue as one that is affecting the global community in a health context. Analysis There are very alarming trends that are emerging in diseases or illnesses at the global arena. Recently, there have been present very striking events, most of which have been attributed to global causes, and these are directly related to the issue of nutrition. These trends and events that are taking centre stage on the international arena are serious and need to be addressed by the global community. They need to be given a greater level of attention than today because of the impact upon the global health status. The most disturbing thing is that the problems related to poor nutrition are not a reserve for the poor but have traversed and taken over even the safe havens for the rich; no one is safe. For us to be able to address the issue of nutrition and illness as is expected, there is need to look at the supply trends on these foods. Indeed, when there is an adequate provision of food that is both good and nutritious, these illness issues would not be at this alarming level. The provision of food that is safe and in the required quantities remains to be the basic responsibility of the government, yet this has always been assumed and only governments show concern when famines and disasters befall their citizens. In such cases, the focus does not concentrate on the nutritional content of what is being fed to the dying citizens but rather turns to making these hungry people fill their stomachs. The result is feeding people on single nutrition meals, such as porridge and maize, alone. This further complicates the issue of nutrition because, while these starving people have managed to fill their stomachs with maize meals, they only have carbohydrates and the other range of nutrients is assumed (Lipton, 2001). Food-borne diseases are on the increase, especially in developed countries. As has been experienced in many wealthy countries, the trend though different, it is read from the same page. There is normally a not so interesting drama that normally ends up following the outbreak of many diseases that are food-borne. What is seen is the number of cases reported, patterns being established about the spread, sources of these contaminated foods are investigated, and the costs of the recalls of such food are alarming. There is virtually no one coming into the scene to take responsibility for the mess (Pinstrup-Anderson & Pandya-Lorch). The outbreaks that are reported in terms of food-borne diseases are very costly, do disrupt the normal lives of people and eventually do turn out to be very deadly. Yet the trend is cyclic and always comes back at some point in future. When we look at the situation of global nutrition, what we see are extremes. These extremes are expressed in terms of fasting, while others do feast carelessly, wasting food, obesity, and stunting, among others. When these issues are considered, the underlying problem that arises is the under-nutrition and many deficiencies that result from lack of essential nutrients are also seen. It has been reported that over 3.5 million deaths occur each year across the globe; the most affected segments of the population are young children and women who are pregnant. This, in turn, bring about global epidemics, such as obesity, which have already been experienced in people starting from the childhood level. There are many issues to blame for these trends. One of the major complaints reported by many people around the world is the issue of soaring prices of food. In these instances, it is always seen that leadership has failed to live up to its expectation. This is because the cost-effective means of looking at these food shortages are not addressed. Also, the policies that have been formulated to govern such issues like agricultural developments, production of food, and trade in food are not being properly handled. This is at the scene where responsibility for nutrition shifts from individual families to the government because the government fails to empower the citizens to become self-dependant in food provision (Lipton, 2001). Much as the nutrition issues and illness are global trends, the most affected countries have been those from underdeveloped categories. Under-nutrition has been blamed for many things and deaths. For instance, figures show that 99 % of pregnancy related deaths are due to poor nutrition and these deaths do occur in underdeveloped countries and the middle-income countries. The fundamental role that good nutrition plays throughout the life of an individual is cannot be ignored, if these figures are anything to go by. The lifespan of people is still influenced by nutrition. This is because adequate nutritional levels do give the brain and body an opportunity to grow and reach its full capacity. Thus, when poorly nourished young people are considered, they are found to have mental and physical problems which could still be traced back to nutritional issues. These people are also very vulnerable to infections from infectious diseases. One of the major interesting evidence about the relationship between nutrition and illness is that of the HIV positive patients, tuberculosis sufferers and those with malaria. It has been found that if these people are under-nourished, their survival levels are cut short and death becomes eminent. This is because the body fails to get the power needed to fight diseases and, hence, they end up succumbing to the illnesses. Under-nutrition has also been established as a major cause of deaths under the ages of 5 and this forms half the deadly cases reported in this age group. Under-nutrition has the mechanisms of weakening the immune system and makes whichever illness the child or person has get worse. What many have failed to understand is the link between the nutrition of the mothers and that of their children. The two are actually directly linked. This is because malnutrition has been established to begin at the point of inception and, thus, most of the damages caused from malnutrition is usually already done by the time the child reaches its second year in life. Many people do assume the consequences that moderate or mild forms of malnutrition could have on the health of an individual. To put it clear, over 80% of the deaths reported from children are as a consequent of mild or moderate malnutrition, as could be opposed to severe ones. This is where the catch comes for even the industrialized countries, since they fail to meet the nutritional levels required and assume the minor ones not knowing that they are the worst killers than even severe malnutrition. This could be attributed to the fact that severe malnutrition could be identified easily because they are more pronounced and quick interventions are able to save the lives of the affected (McMichael, 2001). Many disorders have been known to occur due to poor nutrition. For instance, one of this disorders which could be very fatal, if not well handled, is the one related to iodine deficiency. It has been noted that globally, deficiencies related to iodine affect more than 740 million people around the would which makes up 13% of the whole population in the world, yet 30% of the remaining group are also still at a greater risk. Iodine deficiency disorders have been noted to be the greatest causes of many brain damages that have been seen to be preventable and have serious damages to the foetus, as well as infants, and have been a major cause of retardation in psychomotor development. Those at a serious risk are the pregnant mothers and preschool children, especially those from low income and middle income countries; a factor that has posed a very serious threat to public health in more than 130 countries around the world. Iodization of salt has been adopted as the best solution to tackling this problem. However, this has not achieved the required goal; it has somehow managed to achieve some success. The other problem that comes out of poor nutrition is the Vitamin A deficiency and this does affect mostly the pregnant women and pre-school children who are more vulnerable to the problem. In this category, African has been singled out as having the highest number of people suffering from VAD, while South-East Asia is seen to have the highest number of sufferers who are clinically affected. This disorder has been known to be the main cause of most preventable visual impairments that are very severe to the extent of causing permanent blindness. Treatment for this problem is intake of vitamin A foods and injections. Although this might not have any impact in cases where the patients have already developed the blindness, it could still be used to keep the person healthy. Iron deficiency is another disorder that leads to anaemia. This is the most widespread medical problem in the whole world as a consequence of nutritional disorder, having serious effects to both developed and developing nations. In developing countries, this problem is made worse by the other micro-nutrient deficiencies, infections from parasites, and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS infections. The poorest nations have their foods lacking variety and the meals are mainly cereals which have low iron content. To correct this problem, a combination of supplementations in form of iron, fortification of foods, dietary approaches, and general measures in the public arena are crucial in treating the condition (McMichael, 2001). The other illness on this list has to do with overweight and obesity. Obesity has send threatening signals as becoming the leading cause of the many chronic diseases being experienced in the world today. Overweight and obesity problems are now turning into endemic condition and could be declared as national disasters by many countries. The problem is affecting both developed and developing countries and is on a very serious scale. The actual health consequences have not been fully established because of the fact that this condition affects people of all ages. However, what is clear is the level of developing certain diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular, and mental problems for people who are obese. At the moment, over 50% of the population in developed countries is overweight. While many informed people could see this as serious epidemic, ignorance in many countries such as those in Africa considered being overweight a sign of good health and encouraged people to grow fat to know that they are healthy. This has to do with cultural factors which try to shape the beliefs of people. Obesity has health consequences that are very clear. Its effect on the mental dimensions is worse, especially when self-esteem comes into play and the individual also fails to move even an inch. Worse still, remedies that have been proposed, such as surgical removal of fats and tissues, have not been successful. This is because the tissues keep growing. Exercise, a check on diet, low intake of fatty and junk foods, and other fitness oriented programs have been considered the best remedies for obesity and overweight (World Health Organization, 2000b). Poor dieting has also been linked to such problems like cancer and currently. We have over 10 million cancer cases being reported across the world per year. What is clear is that all cases of cancer could be prevented by good dieting, physical exercise, as well as maintaining the right weight. For example, it has been noted that those diets which have enough and different kinds of greens and fruits do prevent cancer development by 20%. Malnutrition people, especially children, who survive have been seen to have diminished capacities of learning and their productivity is lower. The quality of life is also affected negatively and the families become much drained in terms of finances. The international community has of late shown interest in reducing the spread of nutritional problems and illness. The role that health workers could play in ensuring that nutritional levels could be increased is vital. Health workers have always been in a good position of coming together and designing, as well as implementing programs that touch on nutrition. This is because of the fact that they are powerful motivators when it comes to family health and could use this chance to help in changing some of the poor nutritional practices that families do undergo, as well as shift the many beliefs held by communities on the care and feeding of children and women, especially pregnant mothers (McMichael, 2001). Achievement of this outcome, however, needs to take a top-down approach that promotes the much known beneficial actions, as well as the bottom-up approaches that will help the families and communities need to benefit themselves by taking up corrective measures. In this case, the role that personal initiative play in correcting the mess is very critical to realizing the goals. Health programs could be tailored to focus on the essential nutritional packages and, thus, reduce such problems which lead to infant, child, and adult mortality rates, give a marked improvement in the mental, as well as physical growth and development, as well as subsequently increase the levels of productivity. These essential packages do ensure that they protect, support, and promote various nutritional outcomes that are to be given priority such as: exclusively breastfeeding the children up to the age of six months; giving adequate complementary type of feeding which starts at six months parallel to continued breastfeeding for at least two years; necessary nutritional care that is to be given to sick and malnutrition people; enough consumption of foods with vitamins for all age groups and gender; adequate iron intake, especially for women and children; sufficient intake of iodine rich foods by all family members; and finally, sufficient intake of carbohydrates and proteins with special emphasis to practice and exercise (World Health Organization, 2000a). The interventions that are necessary for the above essential package that ensure nutritional values has actually been proven to be very cheap and quite effective in a wide range of environments. In order for the global community to achieve the desired lasting effect of such a program, there is need to accompany these interventions with things that tackle the basic factors that are the main causes for malnutrition. For instance, the sectors and initiatives outside the health industry are very essential in the alleviation of poverty, raising the living standards and social status of the people. More so, women ensure that food security is guaranteed by employing means that could see to it that supply and access is not interrupted, and expand the level of education, as well as awareness of the general public or families. This last part of education and awareness is very vital, because most of the rich people do fall for these nutritional related illnesses because of the ignorance (Jacobson & Silverglade, 1999). Conclusion Nutrition and illness are indeed quite related; the two have become serious issues in the global arena. The world still has problems with nutrition, even with all the available evidence of the effects that poor nutrition has on the health of people. There has been a wide spread of serious and chronic illness which could be controlled through proper dieting. Research has shown that women and children are the most vulnerable when it comes to problems associated with poor diet. Governments across the world could do a lot in averting this preventable crisis. Food supply is, however, influenced by so many factors and might not be possible to balance for everyone. There are cheaper options that could ensure one has a healthy diet. The various disorders or deficiencies identified in the discussion are just but among the many nutritional related issues that cause illnesses. Preventive measures need to be taken to ensure that these illnesses do not develop. Education, awareness and empowering people have been singled out as major contributors to good nutritional status. There is need to engage all stakeholders in the process and ensure that the people around the world do not die or suffer from preventable illnesses. Medical practitioners could be very instrumental in this process. As such, it is necessary that they are engaged in the process, so that the motivation required to fight this problem through better nutrition is achieved. Other sectors away from health industry have a crucial role in ensuring that the goals of good health through proper nutrition are realized. References Jacobson, M.F., & Silverglade, B. (1999). Functional foods: Health boon or quackery? BMJ; 319: 205–206. Lipton, M. (2001). Challenges to meet: Food and nutrition security in the new millennium. Proc Nutr Soc; 60: 203–214. McMichael, P. (2001). The impact of globalisation, free trade and technology on food and nutrition in the new millennium. Proc Nutr Soc; 60: 215–220. Pinstrup-Anderson, & Pandya-Lorch. World food needs towards 2000. Am J Agr Econ 1997; 5: 1465–6. World Health Organization. (2000a). Turning the tide of malnutrition. Geneva: World Health Organization. World Health Organization. (2000b). Nutrition for health and development. Geneva: World Health Organization. Read More