Role of Chemistry in Domestic Life

Malnutrition has shown to be an important concern in women, children, and the elderly. Because of pregnancies and breastfeeding, women have additional nutrient requirements.[19] Children can be at risk for malnutrition even before birth, as their nutrition levels are directly tied to the nutrition of their mothers.[20]Breastfeeding can reduce rates of malnutrition and mortality in children[4][11], and educational programs for mothers could have a large impact on these rates.[21] The elderly have a large risk of malnutrition because of unique complications such as changes in appetite and energy level, and chewing and swallowing problems.[22] Adequate elderly care is essential for preventing malnutrition, especially when the elderly cannot care for themselves. Malnutrition is a broad term which refers to both undernutrition (subnutrition) andovernutrition. Individuals are malnourished, or suffer from undernutrition if their diet does not provide them with adequate calories and protein for maintenance and growth, or they cannot fully utilize the food they eat due to illness. People are also malnourished, or suffer from overnutrition if they consume too many calories.

causes
(A) Causes related to food.
(B) General causes.
(A) Causes related to food: A lot of causes related to food are responsible for malnutrition. 1. Lack of nutritious and Balanced Diet:
Lack of nutritious and balanced diet is responsible to a great extent for malnutrition in children. In our country, because of poverty, there is a lack of essential elements like Proteins, carbohydrates, fats etc. in everyday meal. 2. Indigestive and Harmful diet:

Intake of indigestive and harmful diet is one of the main causes of malnutrition. Children belonging to the rich families do have expensive food items but in general these food items are indigestive and harmful. Intake of such type of food items often leads to lack of hunger and hence sometimes the children fall prey to malnutrition. 3. Lack of...