SCIENCE AND LIFE

“NUTRITION”

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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
Macronutrients.............................................................................................................................2
Micronutrients..............................................................................................................................2
Antioxidants.................................................................................................................................3
GOALS & AIMS.............................................................................................................................3
FINDINGS & RESULTS................................................................................................................3
Global Trends in Consumption....................................................................................................4
Regional Patterns & Trends.........................................................................................................5
TABLES & FIGURES....................................................................................................................5
1. Low birth weight...................................................................................................................6
2. Child Nutrition Status (Under five).......................................................................................6
3. Child and Adolescent Nutrition Status (aged 5 – 19)...........................................................6
4. Adult Nutrition Status...........................................................................................................7
5. Undernourishment...............................................................................................................7
6. Dietary Needs.......................................................................................................................8
NUTRITION IN UAE.....................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................9

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INTRODUCTION
According to the Medical News Today, Nutrition is defined as “the study of nutrients in food,
how the body uses them, and the relationship between diet, health and disease.” Whatever we eat
contains nutritional value and as soon as it enters our body, it is going to have an overall affect
on our body. Main emphasis of nutrition is to make people aware that how they need to select
certain food choices in order to reduce the risk of particular diseases.

Moreover, nutritionists play an important role in telling people about how much or how little
nutrition is found in any person and what they need to do to bring that into proper required level
of the body. So, it is very significant and vital for a person to have right amount of nutrients in
his diet for development of certain health conditions. Now, let’s look at the different nutrients
important for a human body that are explained below:

Macronutrients
These are the nutrients needed by the human body in large quantities. Some of the
macronutrients are explained below:

 Carbohydrates: Various types of carbohydrates include sugars, fibre and unprocessed starch.
 Proteins: It includes 20 variants of amino acids that are all essential for growth.
 Fats: Lipids, oils, animal fats and vegetable fats are few types of fats that our body needs.
 Water: More than half of our body (60%) is made up of water, so we can realize the
importance of this ingredient very well.

Micronutrients
These nutrients are also equally important but in less amount as compared to the macronutrients.
Few of them are explained below:

 Minerals: Potassium, Sodium, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorous, Zinc and Iron are some
of the vital minerals needed by our body to function properly.
 Vitamins: Vitamins can be water-soluble and fat-soluble. For example, eight B vitamins are
water-soluble and vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble.

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Antioxidants
Few nutrients also act as antioxidants; they may be minerals, vitamins, proteins or some other
types of molecules and help body to remove toxics.

These are some of the most important nutrients required by our body so, humans should consume
variety of these to have a balanced diet rich in nutritional values.[ CITATION Tim20 \l 1033 ].

GOALS & AIMS

People in different parts of the globe have advantage of benefitting themselves from a balanced
diet with right amounts of nutrients in it. According to the study of “Global Burden of Disease”,
one in every five death globally is because of poor diet and lack of required nutrients in the body.
This low amount of nutritional value in the body leads to certain chronic diseases like diabetes,
obesity, high/low blood pressure, anaemia, low birth weights, etc. [ CITATION The19 \l 1033 ].

Basically, the aim and objective of this report is to talk about the relation between the effects of
poor diet on human body and discuss few major foods (rich in nutrients) that are equally
important for our health and to keep ourselves safe from such diseases. Malnutrition is a global
issue now that always hinders regional development and has deadly consequences on the
humans. But, on the other hand, United Nations (UN) and World Health Organization (WHO)
have always come up with particular goals and narrative to diminish malnutrition and accelerate
the progress in this regard.

According to this study of 2017, almost 11 million deaths were due to poor diet globally.
Imbalanced diet like high in sodium, low in grains and fruits, etc lead to half of the deaths from
the number that has been mentioned above. Major results and findings are discussed, in detail,
below.

FINDINGS & RESULTS

We are going to segregate our results on Global and Regional basis to give a clear and better
understanding of this scenario.

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Global Trends in Consumption
Most important 15 different types of dietary elements used in the report are: fruits, vegetable,
legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds, milk, calcium, fibre, diets high in red meat, processed
meat, sodium, sugar-sweetened beverages, trans fatty acids, polyunsaturated fats and seafood.
Major global findings regarding the above mentioned foods are discussed below:

o No region managed to eat the maximum amount of all of these 15 mentioned foods and
similarly none of the dietary element, mentioned above, was taken in required amounts by
the people.
o But, few regions were successful in taking some of these elements in balanced amounts.
o Intake of vegetables was highest in Central Asia. High end Asia-Pacific people consumed sea
food a lot and similarly legumes were eaten in right quantities by the Caribbean, tropical
Latin Americans and south Asians.
o Minimum amounts of these dietary elements were seen for nuts and seeds, milk and whole
grains. On the other hand, sodium, sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meat was
consumed the most overall. On the whole, if we look at the global trends, only 12% of the
amount of nuts and seeds were used but beverages were taken three times more when it
comes to nuts.
o Only 16% of milk of the recommended amount was consumed by the world and almost the
double was the processed meat. Sodium was consumed 86% more than its recommended
ratio. This is quite alarming.
o Malnutrition is leading to ill health and even to deadly ends like deaths. Children under five
years of age have to go through the burden of much disease because of poor nutrition.
o Globally, 150.8 million are stunted, 50.5 million are wasted, 38.3 million are over-weight.
Not only this, but annually 20 million babies are very low weighted at the time of their birth.
o Adult obesity is also rising with each passing day and this issue contributes to almost 40% of
the world. But millions of women are still under weight and one third of the females of
reproductive age have anaemia.

WHO has set a target of ending malnutrition by 2030, but it still seems to be an impossible task
if the similar situation remained prevalent. Each and every country needs to understand the
severity of this situation in order to get rid of this menace [ CITATION Glo18 \l 1033 ].

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Regional Patterns & Trends
Now, let’s talk about the regional implications of these excess or shortage of the dietary elements
we are talking about.

o High sodium intake was mainly in China, Japan and Thailand and caused various diseases
because of excess of this dietary item.
o Low amounts of whole grains were used in USA, India, Brazil, Pakistan, Russia, Egypt,
Germany and Iran. This proved to be main cause of deaths due to poor diet.
o In Low fruits intake Bangladesh stood ahead of other regions and when it comes to low
intake of nuts and seeds, Mexico was leading.
o Uzbekistan, in 2017, was at first place in regard to diet-related deaths. Conversely, Israel
came up with the lowest deaths related to poor diet.
o UK ranked 23rd, and USA was at 43rd place when it is talked about death rates caused by lack
of nutritional value in the diet. India ranked at 118th position and China at 140th [ CITATION
The19 \l 1033 ].
o Similarly, situation in Africa of malnutrition is quite worse but it has decreased when
compared to previous years. As stunting among children has decreased from 38% to 30% and
similarly it has declined in Asia as well to 23%.
o Globally, women have a higher ratio of obesity when compared to men. Overall almost 15%
of the females are over-weight compared to the 11% of males those who are obese.
o Out of 192 countries, 124 experience anaemia, obesity in women and childhood stunting.
Most of the countries of Africa experience malnutrition leading to various diseases caused by
poor diet. [ CITATION Glo18 \l 1033 ]

TABLES & FIGURES

Above mentioned results and findings are now, proved with the tabular form of data along with
charts and graphs. Global perspective is displayed for some of the major targets to be achieved
by the world. These aims have been set up by UNICEF and WHO as a whole.

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1. Low birth weight

2. Child Nutrition Status (Under five)

3. Child and Adolescent Nutrition Status (aged 5 – 19)

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4. Adult Nutrition Status

5. Undernourishment

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6. Dietary Needs

NUTRITION IN UAE
Over the past few years, UAE has witnessed noteworthy transitions and developments. But,
when it comes to nutrition and healthy diet, Emiratis have experienced more obesity and cases of
over-weight people because of wealth and urbanization. Physical activity has reduced a lot and
conversely, eating fast food with low nutritional value has increased a lot compared to eating
good and in balanced amount. People have replaced traditional foods with fast food and soft
drinks that are hazardous for human body. Rare sports activity is found as people prefer life full
of leisure and a relaxing environment. So, overall a shift and transition is being experienced in
the people of UAE mainly because of urbanization and a fast paced life [ CITATION Shu12 \l 1033 ].

CONCLUSION
To conclude, it is very important for countries to prioritize their problems related to nutrition and
come up with sustainable goals and programs that help the nation to eradicate this menace.
Nothing can be more important than the health of the public. Each country should come up with
certain policies to perk up the nutrition status of the nation because it is an integral part of
everyone’s well being [ CITATION Jos08 \l 1033 ].

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Bibliography
(2018). Retrieved from Global Nutrition Report:
https://www.who.int/nutrition/globalnutritionreport/2018_Global_Nutrition_Report_Executive_S
ummary-en.pdf?ua=1

Joshua I. Rosenbloom, D. N. (2008). A Global Nutritional Index. Retrieved from Food and
Nutrition Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 4 © 2008, The United Nations University:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/156482650802900403

Lancet, T. (2019, April 03). Globally, one in five deaths are associated with poor diet. Retrieved
from Science Daily : https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190403193702.htm

Newman, T. (2020, January 09). What is nutrition, and why does it matter? Retrieved from
Medical NeWS Today: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/160774

Shu Wen Ng, H. A. (2012). Nutrition Transition in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Retrieved
from National Center for Biotechnology Information:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3304306/