| dc.description.abstract | This paper attempts to conceptualize malnutrition
from an ecological point of view. One definition of
malnutrition, a term that in Spanish can be rendered
by either 'desnutricion' or 'malnutricion', is:
a pathologic state usually induced by an insufficient
consumption of food, and, therefore, by a lower
calorie intake than required durinS a prolonged period;
it manifests itself by physical, psychologic and biochemical
alterations, by lower weight for height
increments and by a deficit in height as compared to
wellnourished children.1
This definition is unsatisfactory because it suggests
that malnutrition is solely the result of lowered food
consumption, wholly disregarding other components
in the complex web of causation. alnutrition is a pathologic state due to a deficient
availability of essential nutrients at the cellular and
tissue level during a prolonged period; it manifests
itself by physical, psychologic and biochemical alterations',
etc. This broader defmition allows for situations
where an adequate amount of food is consumed,
but the organism is still malnourished.
The classical - and still accepted - defmition of
malnutrition illustrates just how firmly established
is the concept that food is the main factor in the
genesis of malnutrition, even to the extent that it has
been customary to equate malnutrition with underalimentation
and malaIimentation. This philosophical
misconception has greatly affected the evolution of
scientific nutrition, and has been detrimental to the
orientation of teaching, research and nutrition planning
in developingnations. | |
