What does the word malnutrition mean?

Have you ever heard someone say they were “malnourished”? And then just stared blankly at them while nodding your head like an enthusiastic bobblehead? Yeah, me too. Thankfully, we’re about to break down what the heck that word actually means so next time someone uses it in a sentence, you can respond with something other than awkward silence.

Introducing Malnutrition

At its core, malnutrition is simply an imbalance between the nutrients your body needs and those that it’s actually getting. If only it was as easy as taking a multivitamin and calling it a day! Unfortunately, things aren’t quite so simple. Malnutrition isn’t always caused by not eating enough food but rather having poor access to healthy options or overeating unhealthy ones.

Basically, there are two types of malnutrition: under-nutrition (not getting enough good stuff) and overweight/obesity (getting way too much of the bad stuff). Sounds like Goldilocks needed to add more nuance with her porridge taste testing criteria…

Under-Nutrition

Let’s start with under-nutrition since this one tends to be associated more often with malnourishment. Simply put – when people don’t have access to healthy food options or forget that kale exists during meal planning (it’s understandable really) or refuse greens if life depended on them; their bodies don’t get all the essential vitamins and minerals required for optimal functioning.

This leads to being wasted… wait no not like drunk-tipsy-wasted but unable-to-gain-proper-weight wasted – also called stunting.(kindly spare us from height jokes here). Kids who didn’t receive proper nutrition early in life are at high risk of permanently spending their lives shorter than others.(Why’d this remind us of grade school shots – where students lined up based on height and we always wished to the taller line, didn’t you too?)

Overweight/Obesity

On the flip side over-nutrition or better yet unhealthy nutrition can lead to obesity. Which sounds jolly until it means that your body is getting too much of certain types of nutrients (ahem sugar and fat) while being deficient in others like fiber.

Where undernourishment affects growth rates, overweight must deal with a list of chronic diseases – type 2 diabetes, heart disease etc. (they’re real party poopers!!) So, if being told to eat our fruits and veggies was just an excuse for our moms to channel their inner Cruella De Vil by taking away all sugary-drink options – they weren’t doing it JUST FOR FUN! (although I’m still not convinced that mom wasn’t enjoying my tears)

What Causes Malnutrition?

You already know some causes can be overeating unhealthy options or forgetting nutritious ones altogether – but those aren’t the only things causing malnutrition. This kind of imbalance may also happen due to:

• Diseases (cancer…)
• Medications
• Food allergies/intolerances
• Digestive disorders­ such as celiac disease which makes absorption difficult
  (was gutting gluten really worth it??)
• Mental health conditions -which directly impacts appetite and mood

It’s considerate of life-threatening illnesses not sparing healthy diets from ruin right? Who wants a healthy lifestyle when illness will do just fine..a definite perk there.? Well, circumstances are beyond one’s control at times..

The Signs Of Malnutrition

The symptoms associated with malnutrition depend on what kind of malnourishment we’re talking about—either underweight OR overweight so let’s break this down into two sections:

Underweight Sign & Symptoms:

If someone is truly struggling mentally blah-de-blah personally will they search for symptoms to identify whether it’s malnourishment? At least, let’s give them the benefit of doubt and share these malnutrition-associated signs just in case:

• being tired all the time (Yawning now)
• unintended weight loss. (Not achieved through CrossFit – this one…)
• always feeling hungry
• frequent illness

Overweight Sign & Symptoms:

nah! don’t try proving yourself underweight if you can relate to these-donut-even-miss-you kinda symptoms:

• high blood pressure
• elevated cholesterol levels
• breathlessness with low energy levels,

(We’re not telling anyone how worried we are about that heavy breathing part… everyone saw us start running away from cleaning right? RIGHT?!)

Prevention & Treatment Of Malnutrition

When talking prevention, variety is key! Consuming a wider range of foods increases your chances of getting all those essential vitamins and minerals needed plus adds some fun in meal planning! (Who else has tried having pear-on-toast instead of avocado??) The diversity helps curb repetitive boredom we experience when foods got monotonous.

Treatment may focus on rectifying nutrient deficiency by supplement intake/diet changes or treating underlying causes such as bowel disorders which limit absorption.(taking care not stepping over each other while leaving someone behind here!). Even following healthy diets according to clinical recommendations stands higher chances!

Bottom line: Malnutrition sucks but hopefully now you have a better idea what people mean when they describe themselves as “malnourished”. Whether it’s too much junk food or not enough nutrition-rich greenery in our diet we need to be paying closer attention. Now excuse me , I’m off discovering new ways to take my brussel sprouts game up..or maybe just replace them with something interesting because who needs brussels anymore,- am i right or am i right ?