Nutritional Requirements
Undernutrition- a condition in which a person does not consume enough calories to maintain health; aka chronic hunger
Overnutrition- the ingestion of too many calories and improper foods causing a person to become overweight
Malnutrition- a condition in which a person's diet lacks the correct balance of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals regardless of the number of calories they consume
- Our body converts food calories into usable energy
- Not consuming enough calories leads to an energy deficit
- Average person needs approx. 2,200 kilocalories per day (varies with gender, age, and weight)
- Long-term deficit of only 100-400 kilocalories per day deprives a person of the energy needed to perform daily activities
Overnutrition- the ingestion of too many calories and improper foods causing a person to become overweight
- May lead to type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, or stroke
- WHO (World Health Organization) estimates that over 1 billion people in the world are overweight
- Usually based off of the availability and affordability of certain kinds of foods
- Common in developed countries (U.S.) and can coexist with malnutrition in developing countries
Malnutrition- a condition in which a person's diet lacks the correct balance of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals regardless of the number of calories they consume
- Primary reason for malnutrition and undernutrition = poverty (the lack of resources that allow one access to food)
- Food security- the condition in which people have access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious foods that meet their dietary needs for an active and healthy life
- Food insecurity- the condition in which people do not have adequate access to food
- Access- the economic, social, and physical availability of food
Famine- a condition in which food insecurity is so extreme that large number of deaths occur in a given area over a relatively short period
- Also defined as an event in which there are more than 5 deaths per day per 10,000 people due to lack of food
The Human Diet
1. Grains- the seed-like fruits of corn, rice, wheat, and rye
2. Meat- livestock (beef, veal, pork, and lamb) and poultry (chicken, turkey, and duck)
3. Fish- includes both wild-caught fish and aquaculture-raised fish (see Animal & Fish Farming page)
- Make up the largest component of the human diet
- Today, the world's farmers grow enough grain to feed at least 8 billion people
- Roughly 40% of the grain grown in the world is used to feed livestock
- Per capita grain production has been level since 1980 but may actually be steadily declining since then
2. Meat- livestock (beef, veal, pork, and lamb) and poultry (chicken, turkey, and duck)
- Second largest component of the human diet
- As income increases with economic growth, people tend to add more meat to their diet
3. Fish- includes both wild-caught fish and aquaculture-raised fish (see Animal & Fish Farming page)