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100
The question of nutrition of the children of the nation
has ceased to be purely medical and is now being carefully
considered by statesmen and economists, and it is a healthy
sign that this is now being viewed from the angle of optimum
nutrition and is not being confined to the assessment of obvious
malnutrition. There is, however, a degree of loose thinking
on this subject and it would be well to endeavour to define
what one means by malnutrition, and I suggest the following :
A failure to achieve optimum development due to insufficiency of
some essential.
It may be said that no precise standard for the assessment
of malnutrition can be defined and if the investigation is
purely medical a divergence of results will be obtained in any
group of children, depending on the views of the examining
doctor.
Confining the question to the insufficiency of essential
food stuffs, though that is by no means the only cause of
malnutrition, it is possible to divide that insufficiency into
two main groups :—
(i) Through provision of insufficient or unsuitable food.
(ii) Failure to eat or assimilate food provided, though
adequate, through physical, mental or environmental
defect.
It is only in Group I. that the provision of extra nourishment
is the true remedy. It may prove beneficial in other
groups, if the parents fail through ignorance or indolence,
but is clearly the wrong course of action. .
The selection of children coming under Group I., by
medical examination, is both unfair and inefficient.
Children vary so extensively in the rate and type of their
bodily and mental development that all systems of physical
measurement or examination are accurate only in determining
the presence or absence of gross malnutrition.