Lecture 2: Ecology Malnutrition

Ecology

- is the relationship of man to his environment, or the factors that influence man in what he does. The individual is influenced by several exogenous or environmental factors and endogenous factors (from within).
- Nutrition is never isolated; it is always shaped by these factors.

Host or man, Environment, Agent

Framework for Understanding the Ecology of Food and Nutrition

Environment

to the sum total of all external conditions and influences that affect the life and development of an organism.

Agent

pertains to an element, a substance, or force, either animate or inanimate, the presence or absence of which, following effective contact with a susceptible host under proper environmental conditions, serves as a stimulus to initiate or perpetuate a disease process.

Imbalance

a pathological state resulting from malabsorption among essential nutrients, with or without absolute deficiency of any nutrient, such as Ca and Vitamin D.

Toxicity

excessive intake of certain nutrients that are toxic, such as Vitamin A toxicity.

Acute Malnutrition

- related to the current state of nutrition caused by recent severe food restriction.
- Characterized in children with thinness and weight loss, low weight-for-height, but with normal height-for-age.

Chronic Malnutrition

- related to the past state of nutrition caused by long-term food deprivation.
- Characterized in children who are short (low height for age - stunted or nutritional dwarfism), and low weight-for-age and low height-for-age.

Dietary Malnutrition

caused by inadequate food intake due to poverty, ignorance, poor food habits, limited food supply, poor distribution of food, and cultural taboos.

Condition Malnutrition

caused by certain factors other than food alone and factors that interfere with normal digestion, like GI disorders, lack of appetite, dental problems, or factors that interfere with absorption, like diarrhea, laxatives, intestinal surgery, and parasitism.

Nutritionally at-risk communities

- remote rural areas (for chronic/long-term malnutrition)
- urban poor areas (acute/short-term malnutrition)

Physiological groups

pregnant and lactating mothers, preschoolers, the aged, and the elderly.

Functional classification

classifying the undernourished population according to the ecological
Ecological subzones

Economic status

income size of tenancy (children of poor families, refugees, and displaced people)

Vicious Cycle of Malnutrition

nutritional status as an indicator of sustainable development recognizes the vicious cycle between poverty and malnutrition, as well as the social costs and opportunity costs attached to it

Impaired physical and mental development

nutrient deficiency affects the growth and maturity of the brain.

Impaired national development

a malnourished population will result in a malnourished country.

Food and Nutrition System

refers to a set of processes and conditions by which food is produced, processed, and stored, marketed, distributed, prepared, and consumed in order to attain food security, proper nutrition, and good health.

Food production, Food Distribution, Food Consumption, Biological utilization of food

Components of Food and Nutrition System

Food production

includes agricultural inputs and practices that determine the kinds and amounts of the food grown, such as complementary activities of preparation, cultivation, harvesting, storage, processing, and preservation to prevent food losses.

Food distribution

includes the ways and means by which food is physically and economically available to population groups and individuals in communities through trade and marketing, road infrastructure, transport facilities, and policies on employment and income, equity, and improved welfare.

Food consumption

includes the amount and variety of foods consumed as influenced by income levels, socio-cultural factors, family size, preferences and eating patterns, religious restrictions, customs and traditions, and level of nutrition knowledge.

Biologic utilization of food

includes the state of health, illnesses, and physiologic conditions that affect the digestion, metabolism, and utilization of food in the human body for growth, development, and maintenance of vital body processes, sanitary/safe environments, and basic services to prevent the occurrence of diseases.

Pre-harvest, Post-Harvest, Processing, Post-Processing, Consumer Practices

Stages of the farm-to-fork continuum