The role of nutrition in maintaing health

Role of nutrition in maintaining health

Nutrition is a basic element of health. Nutrition influence the health from birth to death.

Growth and development

· Good nutrition is essential for attainment of normal growth 

and development during fetal life and childhood. 

Physical growth, intellectual development, learning and 

behaviour are affected by malnutrition.

·  Adequate nutrition is needed for adult life maintenance for 

optimum health and efficiency.

·  Elder people needs special nutrition due to their 

physiological and chronological changes. 

·   Pregnant and lactating mothers require more proteins 

and nutrients to prevent abortion, growth retardation 

and low birth weight babies and provide adequate 

breast feeding for their babies.

Specific deficiency diseases

·  Good nutrition is essential to prevent nutritional 

deficiency diseases, promotion of health and treatment 

of deficiency diseases: protein energy malnutrition, blindness, goiter, 

anemia, beriberi, rickets etc. There is increased incidence 

of abortion, prematurity, still birth and low birth 

weight babies in malnourished mothers.

Resistance to infection

·  A well balanced nutrition prevents infections like 

tuberculosis. Good nutrition enhances wound healing. 

Improves resistance of an individual towards infections.

Mortality and morbidity

·  Malnutrition leads to increased death rate, infant 

mortality rate, stillbirths and premature deliveries. Prematurity 

is the major cause of deaths.

·  Over  nutrition  causes  diseases  like obesity, diabetes, 

hypertension, cardiovascular and renal diseases and causes death.