International Nutrition Issues: Understanding the Impact of Vitamin Deficiencies and Significance of Healthy Diets

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INTERNATIONAL NUTRITION ISSUES
by
BSc/FdSc Applied Food and Nutrition
Helen Darracott
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International Nutrition Issues
Introduction
Nutrition involves the study of nutrients in the food, how the body utilizes nutrients and
the link between diet, health and diseases. Its main concern is how diseases can be minimized
with a proper healthy diet. Basically, it is about detecting how dietary aspects like poor diet, food
allergies and food intolerances course certain diseases and conditions. Nutrition is a home of
nourishment and component of foods like proteins, starches, flabs, vitamins, mineral, roughage
and water. Nutrition disorder is where by there is inadequate supply of essential nutrients in the
diet, for instance, vitamins, fiber or proteins thus leading to malnutrition or diseases. It is caused
by inadequate intake of food or specific nutrients, failure of the body to absorb and make use of
the present nutrients or overconsumption of certain foods. According to World Health
Organization, there have been several nutrition issues that pose a great challenge in the field of
health. In this essay, we are going to focus on lack of vitamins which is one of the major issue
that affects most of the developing countries. We shall discuss how it is caused, how it manifests
itself, signs and symptoms and how its effect may Impact on an individual and the society at
large, how the nutritional issue is assessed in the field, tools and techniques used to identify
levels of the vitamin deficiency.
Vitamin is an essential micronutrient organic molecule that the body needs in small amounts for
proper functioning of its metabolism. The foods we consume are the best sources of vitamins but

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supplements can also be used. There are various types of vitamins. For instance, vitamin A, B,
B2, B3, D, C. The following are various signs and symptoms of lack of vitamins in the body.
Lack of vitamin B7 in the body will cause fragile hair and nails. Nails and will not be so
strong and thus leading to frequent breakage. This vitamin will help to convert the food into
energy that will be used in the development of strong hair and nails. The patient may also
experience muscle discomfort and fatigue. Those who are likely to be affected by this deficiency
are heavy smokers. When you observe most of the smokers and drinkers you will realize that
they have weak nails that appear to be pale. Most of children especially in developing countries
appear to have fragile hair. One of the reason for this is lack of enough vitamin B7 in their bodies
(Hales et al.2018, p.1724). This deficiency can be manifested through failure to consume foods
like fish, meat, sweet potatoes, yeast and bananas.
Bleeding gum is another sign of an important vitamin in the body. Sometimes brushing
your teeth even, a million times may not be solution. Diet with no vitamin C may be the major
problem. This vitamin helps in immunity and wound healing. It prevents cell damage and plays
an important role in antioxidant. Scurvy is also another serious consequence for lack vitamin C
in the diet. It depresses the immune system, weakens muscles and bones and causes fatigue. This
deficiency is manifested when one fails to consume enough fruits and vegetables.

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Another signs of lack of vitamins in the body is undernutrition. (Ke et al. 2015, p. 90),
This problem is prevalent in most undeveloped countries like Sudan, Africa.Becouse of the poor
economy, high rate of unemployment, most of the citizens cannot afford certain food stuff that
have the right nutrients (Adeyeye, Adebayo-Oyetoro & Tiamiyu 2017, p. 757). Undernutrition
involves failure to meet an individual’s needs to maintain good health due to insufficient intake
energy and nutrients (Whitney & Rolfes 2018, p. 56). It can be measured through various means
like body composition, clinical signs of deficiency-where they use a combination of qualitative
and quantitative description of undernutrition like marasmus and kwashiorkor. It is mainly
caused by insufficient calories and other factors like poor hygiene, poor nutrition to mothers in
maternity and lack of food of the right quality and quantity (Saunders, Smith & Stroud 2019,
p.231). Calories play an important role in the body. Their absence in the body may led to
weakness in the body and lack of energy to perform some tasks. Poor hygiene can be dangerous
if no preventive measures are taken. It can lead to attack of deadly diseases like cholera and
typhoid. Most of the third world countries have reported high rates of mortality both to the young
and old because of cholera that is caused by poor hygiene. Maternal nutrition is a creation aspect
for it involves lives of two lives. Lack of a balanced diet for the expectant mothers may lead to
underweight babies with complications. Insufficient quantity and quality of food also causes
undernutrition. Taking foods that lack proteins or carbohydrates or other important diet is one of
the biggest challenge faced. It leads to emergence of diseases like kwashiorkor, anemia and
marasmus. Generally, hunger and undernutrition are nutrition issues faced everywhere. It leads
to reduced body weight in children, interferes with physical health and course cognitive
impairment.