Nutritional problems in India

Protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) comes from too little energy and protein. Children are most at risk, as are the elderly and people with TB or AIDS. It is assessed by anthropometry: weight, height, head and chest circumference.

• Underweight: low weight for age.
• Stunting: low height for age (long-term undernutrition).
• Wasting: low weight for height (recent, acute undernutrition).
• Marasmus: severe deficiency of food and energy; the child is very thin.
• Kwashiorkor: severe deficiency of protein.

Iron-deficiency anaemia is the most common nutritional disorder in the world. It affects women of child-bearing age, adolescent girls, pregnant women and schoolchildren. Signs: breathlessness, fatigue, pallor (paleness), and, in children, poorer memory and attention.

Vitamin A deficiency first causes night blindness, and then blindness: it is the commonest cause of childhood blindness. It also lowers resistance to infection, setting up a vicious cycle with infection.

Iodine deficiency disorders come from iodine-poor soil (the Himalayan belt and other areas). They cause goitre in adults, cretinism in children, and, during pregnancy, irreversible mental retardation of the fetus. They affect about 13 per cent of the world's people.