Nutrition

 Part 2

 Relationship of Nutrition with Health and Nursing  

Nutrition and health

Adequate nutrition is the foundation of good health. Good nutrient is considered as a basic components of health. Nutrients effect human health from birth to death. If we want to make a people healthy , nutritional need of the vulnerable groups such as infants , children pregnant and lactating women and elderly must be met. Promotion of breastfeeding and appropriate weaning practice contribute to normal growth and development. The relation of nutrition to health may be seen from the following view point.

Growth and Development

Good nutrition is essential for attainment of normal growth and development during fetal life and childhood. Physical growth and intellectual development, learning and behaviour all are affected by malnutrition. Adequate nutrition is also needed in adult life for the maintenance of optimum health and efficiency. Elder people needs special nutrition due to their chronological changes. Pregnant and lactating mother requires more proteins, calories and some others nutrients to prevent abortion, growth retardation and low birth weight babies.

Nutritional deficiency diseases

Malnutrition is directly responsible for the certain specific nutritional deficiency diseases. The commonly reported other ones in India are protein energy malnutrition , blindness , goitre , anemia , beri-beri and rickets , etc. There are increased incidence of abortion , prematurity , stillbirth and low birth weight in malnourished mother. So good nutrition is the essential for prevention of specific nutritional deficiency diseases promotion of Health and treatment of deficiency diseases.

Resistance of infection

Nutrition rich in protein , vitamins and minerals prevents infection like tuberculosis. Infection in turn may aggravates by affecting the food intake, absorption and the metabolism of nutrients. So we need well balanced diet throught life to protect ourselves from such  opportunistic infection. Good nutrition also enhances wound healing in the patient with different type of surgical operations.

 Mortality And Morbidity

Malnutrition contribute a lot of general death rate , infant mortality rates , stillbirth and premature deliveries.  Prematurity is the main cause of infant death . Servers malnutrition in mothers during first trimester of pregnancy may cause fetal malformation. On the other hand over nutrition which is another type of malnutrition responsible for obesity, hypertension , cardiovascular and renal diseases , liver disorder and gallbladder diseases.

To reduce the incidence of nutritional deficiency diseases, our government has launched several nutritional programmes.

e.g 

Mid - day school meal, Integrated Child Development Scheme, anaemia Control programme and iodine deficiency disorder Control programme, etc.