Global Nutritional Issues Paper Example

Introduction

Over the years, developing and developed nations have been affected by nutritional issues. This has been triggered by unhealthy eating habits, poverty, reliance on plants as a source of food and significantly high rates of infections. The most common deficiency diseases include anemia, Vitamin deficiency, and iodine deficiency among others have been caused by nutrition problems. The population at risk are majorly children, the elderly and women. It is evident that nutritional issues have been one of the most destructive issues across the globe; due to the high number of mortalities associated with it (Seiler & Stahelin, 2015). Even though the ratio and the number of the absolute hunger-stricken people have decreased, the progress that has been made does not correlate with the financial and human resources that have been invested (Ashraf, Ashraf & Ozturk, 2018). There have been challenges to build upon the improvement made and accelerate the process aimed at enhancing nutrition. Other than health issues, there has been slow progress in the socio-economic development of nations affected. Control of nutritional problems calls for a systematic diagnosis of the current situation to formulate strategies that target food production, nutritional supplements, sensitization on nutrition and overall improvement of socio-economic state the population. This paper focuses on global nutritional issues, prevention measures, and cost-effective approaches to curb malnutrition.

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Global nutritional issues

Malnutrition is a major nutritional issue that is manifested in different forms. It affects the global population at some point in the lifecycle; either childhood or old age. There is no nation that is immune to malnutrition. All ages, sexes, social status, and geographical areas are affected. While all can experience malnutrition, those vulnerable include children, pregnant mothers, old people, those who are ill or people in poverty-stricken areas (Gali, Tamiru & Tamrat, 2017). Population displaced from their homes due to conflict or natural disaster issues are also prone to malnutrition. Jointly, malnutrition is the leading cause of ill health, and this means that good health cannot be achieved without a good nutritional program. The different forms of malnutrition are linked with diseases and ultimately mortality. Undernutrition is linked to 45 percent of mortalities of children below the age of five while the overweight contributes to almost 4 million deaths across the globe.

Different factors working at various levels cause malnutrition. There is access to clean water, sanitation issues, education, and health care services which plays a critical part in achieving a healthy population. A major cause of malnutrition across all sectors is a suboptimal diet which includes inadequate lactation for babies below 1 year. This is followed by a poor dietary program which contributes to up to 18 percent of all mortalities. Improving diet is not a lasting solution to malnutrition, but it provides a channel through which deaths related to malnutrition across all ages and social status can be reduced (Achadi et al., 2016). Overweight has been accepted as one of the most costly health issues but there is new data that reveal that malnutrition is even more costly. This sums up the fact that malnutrition either overweight or undernourished is a major problem across the globe.

Across the globe, malnutrition costs more than $3.5 trillion annually (Global nutrition report). This report also provides a detailed analysis of food and nutritional problem experienced across the globe on an annual basis. The cost incurred in obese and overweight issues sums up to $500 billion every year (Sathyamala, 2017). Even though there has been some progress in mitigating obese and overweight-related issues, the United States has performed miserably towards achieving nutrition targets. The US has continuously suffered from increasing rates of obesity, anemia, and diabetes with more overweight children than any other nation. The hard question is not why things are bad but rather why things are not becoming better even after much has been done. The most common issues revolve around overweight, anemia and stunted growth among children. India on the other side has the highest percentage of malnutrition among children with the majority having "stunted" growth compared to others of their age. Their physique is a visible sign that not only their bones are receiving insufficient nutrients but also their brains. This is linked to their hampered learning capability. Down the road, the affected children cannot acquire better jobs as they ought to get. This further affects their contribution to society and the economy at large. Experts indicate that the main issue is eating and lifestyle choices made by the affected population. In the United States, people buy high volumes of packed foods, and some have significantly poor nutritional content. China also has obesity issues and is also the second-largest malnourished population.

It has been stated that undernourishment and a poor dietary program is a driver for the global disease burden. The annual GDP loss across different nations in Africa and Asia due to nutritional related issues average 11 percent. In the US, when a member of a family is suffering from a weight-related issue, the household faces additional healthcare costs. In China, diabetes leads to at least 16 percent loss of income among the affected population. The figures indicate that the weight of malnutrition falls of everyone whether directly or indirectly (Achadi et al., 2016). Nevertheless, the resources incurred in controlling the effects associated with it provides opportunities for economic enhancement and formulation of sustainable solutions towards nutrition-related issues. Majority of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) has some elements related to nutrition, highlighting on nutrition's role in achieving sustainable development. This is because an enhanced nutrition program in any nation is a channel towards a healthy population, quality education, poverty eradication, and female empowerment. At the same time, climate change, inequality, education, and poverty eradication all have a central role in the nutritional outcome. If there is social justice and women empowerment, children are less likely to have stunted growth. Women will be able to acquire secondary education, and they will be sensitized on the need to breastfeed and provide better nutritional programs to their babies.

Preventive Measures

Due to the prevailing malnutrition issue, the current funds allocated is too low. Statistically, the middle-income nations allocate only 2.1 percent of their budget to malnutrition problem. On the other hand, budget allocation for education, health, and agriculture is more than 30 percent (World Bank, 2010). The donor funds to nutrition-related intervention have stagnated to an average of $1 billion. At the same time, spending allocated for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is also low. This is despite the fact that NCDs contributes to nearly 50 percent of mortalities and disabilities on low and middle-level nations (Caleyachetty et al., 2018). The existing nutritional plans do not include a full set of projections for infants, children and elderly. When nations are setting targets, only a smaller proportion of the plans can be considered to be SMART. Only 35 percent of countries consider obesity and diabetes in their nutrition plans. There are some nations that do not specify the type of nutritional issues they seek to address. Two preventive measures can be used in addressing malnutrition issues.

Nutritional Planning: This involves political interventions with the aim of accelerating development process in a country. This will involves making of policies and proper planning to improve food production and ensure there is equitable distribution. Within the realms of beneficial policies that can enhance nutrition in a nation, there is also a need to include programs that increased the purchasing power of the population. Planning includes land reforms, education on agricultural practices to assist farmers get better yields and also improve the marketing of their produce. To improve in the purchasing power of the population, there is a need for income generating activities for the vulnerable population and making available quality food and at affordable prices.

Direct nutrition and health interventions: This includes improving the healthcare system, providing nutrition education, implementing measures that help in early detection of malnutrition, and providing nutritional supplements. There are diseases like diarrhea or malaria that are prone in our society and this at as catalyst in malnutrition among children. There is a need to implement health care systems that facilitate immunization, early detention and immunization, and treatment of such diseases (Sathyamala, 2017). On education, governments can provide educational programs that focus on the importance of nutritional quality and significance of exclusive lactation for infants. There also exists irrational beliefs and cultural norms that have affected nutritional quality in developing nations. Education should involve sensitization on these norms and the promotion of healthy food and feeding programs. Proper sanitation and immunization program should be followed to achieve a healthy young population

When developmental delays are uncorrected, there is a greater chance of long-term effects. This means that intervention should be initiated during pregnancy or within infancy. A well-monitored growth chart can help avoid malnutrition during the early stages of a child's life. In case the growth of a child is slow relative to their peers, the physician can be alerted to assess if there is a hidden infection or if the abnormal growth is as a result of nutritional deficiency. Normally, vulnerable women, infants, and school children are the vulnerable population when it comes to nutritional deficiency. For this reason, calories, proteins, and micronutrients should be administered regularly as supplements as prevention measures. Supplements accelerate the physical growth and development, prevent mineral deficiency diseases like anemia among mothers thereby imposing the pregnancy outcome.

Cost-Effective Interventions

More investment, better allocation: investing in nutrition issues is one of the most cost-effective measures that governments can take. For every dollar invested in a reputable nutritional program, a double or triple benefit is realized. To make significant achievement in nutrition, governments and global donors need to double their commitment in the coming years to achieve substantial and sustainable results. Increase in commitment and spending is possible as seen in places like the Indian state of Maharashtra (Barona, 2011). Similarly, stakeholders need to ensure that budgets in various sectors of the economy such as agriculture, social protection, education, and natural resource development received adequate funds to end malnutrition in all forms. There is a need for more spending on capacity building in addressing obesity and nutrition-related disease. Nutritional investments should be seen as economic progress rather than perceiving nutrition as an outcome of economic development.

Data collection to maximize investment: There are data gaps that have hindered the road to achieving progress in nutrition. Each country has an entirely different nutritional needs hence the need to understand and act on its unique condition. In the spirit of SDGs, stakeholders need to closely monitor the spending and their impact on all types of malnutrition including obesity, anemia, and exclusive lactation among women.

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