Question

What question will you ask a doctor to know about malnutrition?

Answer 1

Hint: Malnutrition is a situation when one’s body is deprived of nutrients and its main cause is an incomplete inadequate diet (due to low income, poverty is its main cause). To overcome these scientists have developed many crops with modified genes that have high nutritional content.

Complete answer: If I am feeling weak or I have certain signs on my body which I have recently received then I will consult a doctor to know about how these things are happening.
The reason behind all these things maybe that I am not getting proper nourishment and I am malnourished. The very common sign of malnutrition is muscle weakness, fatigue which ultimately causes weight loss.
If a child is not getting proper nourishment then it may lead to conditions like:
1) Marasmus: It is caused mainly due to the deficiency of protein and hence it is also called PEM (Protein-energy malnutrition). It occurs to the children whose age is under 1.
Its main symptom is muscle wasting, improper growth, and anemia.
2) Kwashiorkor: It is also PEM caused in children of age group between 6 months and 3 years. In this edema (swelling) of ankles, belly, and feet occurs, loss in weight and weak immune system are also characteristic of this.

Additional information:
There are more than 840 million people who are deprived of adequate food (and hence cannot fulfill their daily nutritional requirements) and the number increases when it comes to micronutrient deficiency and it is about 3 billion peoples. Deficiency of micronutrients, vitamins are called ‘Hidden Hunger’. And this can reduce lifespan and causes mental retardation.

Note:To combat this, scientists started breeding the crops with higher levels of nutrients such as higher protein, higher vitamin, and higher mineral content.
This is called Biofortification.
Examples: Atlas 66, a wheat variety which is rich in protein content, hybrid maize was formed which has the higher content of amino acid-like lysine and tryptophan iron-fortified rice has been also developed which is having 5 times more iron content than normal rice.