NCERT Class 12 Home Science Chapter 3 Public Nutrition and Health

PUBLIC NUTRITION AND HEALTH

 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing this chapter the learner will be able to:

• understand the significance of public nutrition
• have knowledge about the nutritional problems of public health significance
• understand the factors that are linked to nutritional problems
• describe strategies that can be used to tackle nutritional problems
• be acquainted with the  programmes  that are in operation to tackle important nutritional problems.

INTRODUCTION

In Class XI you studied the basic concepts of nutrition and health, physical  fitness and wellness. You must be aware of the importance of good nutrition as the foundation and cornerstone of health. So what is significant about the introduction of the word ‘public’ in this context? Let us find out. You are already familiar with the definition of health given by the World  Health  Organisation . The concept of public health refers to the collective action taken by society to protect and promote the health of the whole populations.

In Class XI, you were introduced to the terms undernutrition and overnutrition. The mission in public health nutrition is to prevent both undernutrition and overnutrition and to maintain optimal nutritional status of the population.

Significance

Why do we need to focus on this specific aspect in the field of nutrition? Malnutrition is the underlying cause of at least 50 per cent of deaths of children under five years of age. The statistics for nutrition-related problems in our country reveal an alarming situation:

• Almost one-third of the infants born in India are low birth weight babies i.e., they weigh less than 2500g or 2.5kg. Low birth weight may have adverse effects throughout their growing years and may have adverse implications even in adult life. Low birth weight may even lead to child mortality.

• There is widespread prevalence of growth retardation among preschoolers (from socio-economically disadvantaged families) and almost half the children suffer from mild and moderate under nutrition.

• A large proportion of children (and adults) suffers from micronutrient deficiencies in varying degrees of severity. The micronutrients of most concern are iron, zinc, vitamin A, iodine, folic acid, B12.

If these problems are not controlled in time, they will not only affect physical growth which may lead to smaller body stature in adulthood, but may also affect mental and cognitive development. All of these, in turn, can have negative impact on productivity and quality of life. The costs of malnutrition are very high. Experts have estimated that productivity losses are more than 10 per cent of lifetime earnings for individuals and 2-3 percent of gross domestic product for the nation. This clearly indicates that if we tackle malnutrition, we can help India to develop, grow economically and become a powerful nation.

India mostly faces the problem of under nutrition; however, the problem of over nutrition is also on the rise. Gradually, over the years, large numbers of persons have altered their dietary patterns and lifestyles. With respect to lifestyle, people have become more sedentary, relying on faster means of transportation, walking less and doing less amount of outdoor or physical activity. In large cities, even children do not play enough outdoor games. Simultaneously dietary patterns have become less ‘healthful’. Food choices have become less ‘healthy’ because processed foods, fast foods, snacks, western type foods, e.g., burgers, pizzas, biscuits, chocolates,

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