FOOD, NUTRITION AND BODYWEIGHT

Food, nutrition and body weight work like a vicious cycle where they all have an impact on one another. Food and its nutrient content impacts body weight greatly and vice versa. Nutrition contributes either to healthy weight, overweight or underweight. On the other hand, body weight greatly influences nutritional processes in the body. In the context of overweight and obesity we have seen a rise of the cases which in turn have lead to a rise in cases of non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cancers, musculoskeletal disorders and cardiovascular diseases. Undernutrition covers wasting (thinness), stunting (too short for age) and underweight (low weight for age). In the context of underweight and more so chronic undernutrition, effects especially in children below five years is long term and prevents them from achieving their growth potential both cognitive and physical. Individuals who are overweight and obese are greatly exposed to development of noncommunicable diseases which greatly affect their quality of life. Obese children are at risk of developing obesity in adulthood, health problems, disability and premature death. Undernutrition on the other hand, exposes children and adults to infections due to low immunity in the body which can eventually lead to death. With the dramatic rise of malnutrition and more so overnutrition which covers overweight and obesity, worldwide prevalence of obesity has tripled between 1975 and 2016 (World Health Organization 2016) a strain on the healthcare delivery system is almost inevitable. It is paramount that interventions are put in place to help address and improve ideologies of food and nutrition among populations. Globally, approximately 149 million children under five years were estimated to be stunted and 45 million wasted (World Health Organization 2020). Other statistics indicate 13.6 million children below five years were severely wasted (UNICEF 2020). 1.9 billion Adults were classified as either overweight or obese with 650 million obese (World Health Organization 2016). Global statistics indicate that 38.9 million children below five years were overweight or obese (World Health Organization 2020). According to the above statistics, the relationship between nutrition and body weight indicates that interventions need to be put in place to address the global health challenge

Author(s): Prof. Brendah W Kihara

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