Health and Nutrition

What is Health?

Health is not merely the absence of any disease, but complete mental and physical and social wellbeing.

Today, three types of definition of health seem to be possible and are used. The first is that health is the absence of any disease or impairment. The second is that health is a state that allows the individual to adequately cope with all demands of daily life (implying also the absence of disease and impairment). The third definition states that health is a state of balance, an equilibrium that an individual has established within himself and between himself and his social and physical environment.

 What is nutrition?

The process of providing or obtaining the food necessary for health and growth.

Inorganic Nutrients -A number of inorganic elements (minerals) are essential for the growth of living things. Similarly, iodine (as iodide) is required in animals for the formation of thyroxine

Organic nutrients-The organic nutrients are the necessary building blocks of various cell components that certain organisms cannot synthesize and therefore must obtain performed. These compounds include carbohydrates, protein, and lipids.

 How Nutrition Affects  Women

Women are more likely to suffer from nutritional deficiencies than men are, for reasons including women’s reproductive biology, low social status, poverty, and lack of education. Sociocultural traditions and disparities in household work patterns can also increase women’s chances of being malnourished Globally, 50 per cent of all pregnant women are anaemic, and at least 120 million women in less developed countries are underweight. Research shows that being underweight hinders women’s productivity and can lead to increased rates of illness and mortality. In some regions, the majority of women are underweight: In South Asia, for example, an estimated 60 per cent of women are underweight.

Many women who are underweight are also stunted, or below the median height for their age. Stunting is a known risk factor for obstetric complications such as obstructed labour and the need for skilled intervention during delivery, leading to injury or death for mothers and their newborns. It also is associated with reduced work capacity