Nutritional Status Types

By Kimmer Collison-RisMSN, FNP-C, WOCNImages by Bing & Google Images

Nutrition science is scientific knowledge that defines nutrient requirements for body maintenance, growth, activity, and reproduction

Dietary assessment provides useful support data for biochemical assays of nutritional status, and it has the additional advantage of being easy to conduct among large groups of people in a non-traumatic fashion.

Referred to as the nutritional health of an individual

Influenced by one’s living situation, available food supply, food choices, and state of health or disease

optimal nutrition

marginal nutrition

malnutrition

over-nutrition

Marginal vitamin deficiency is a middle ground between adequate nutritional status and the point at which frank deficiency disease symptoms develop.

Vitamin deficiency is not something that occurs abruptly or acutely

Retrieved from orthomolecular.org/library/jom/1984/pdf/1984-v13n01-p027.pdf · PDF file

Dietary records including food and supplements

Biochemical measurements such as blood nutrient levels, which can help identify specific deficiencies

Anthropometric measurements such as body weight for height, which provide an estimate of body fat and muscle mass

Clinical measurements looking at skin, hair, eyes, etc.

When nutrient intake is not sufficient to meet day-to-day needs and nutrient reserves are depleted

Energy needs may be met, but micronutrients likely are lacking

Excessive energy intake and low physical activity will, over time, result in unwanted weight gain and over-nutrition

Also occurs with excessive intakes of micronutrients

Eating is influenced by:Ethnic background

Cultural or religious beliefs

Family habits

Socioeconomic status

Health status

geographic location

Personal likes and dislikes

Various forms ranging from marginal nutritional status to the famine victim w/kwashiorkor or marasmus

Undernutrition

defined as the outcome of insufficient food intake and repeated infectious diseases.

Includesbeing underweight for one’s age,

too short for one’s age (stunted),

dangerously thin

deficient in vitamins & minerals (micronutrient malnutrition).

Malnutrition refers to both undernutrition and overnutrition.

Malnutrition -broad term used as an alternative to undernutritionalso refers to overnutrition.

Persons are malnourished if: their diet is inadequate in calories and protein for growth & maintenance

If they’re unable to fully utilize food consumed reillness(undernutrition).

also malnourished if they consume too many calories (overnutrition).

Definition: Person is not deficient but lacks the nutrient reserves to cope with any added physiologic or metabolic demand arising from injury or illness, the need to sustain a healthy pregnancy, or a childhood growth spurt

Causes: poor eating habits,

stressed environments,

or insufficient resources to obtain appropriate types or amounts of food

"Optimum Nutrition" can be defined as eating the right amounts of nutrients on a proper schedule to achieve the best performance and the longest possible lifetime in good health

An elusive goal because demands of the body change from minute-to-minute based on physical activity

medical science does not yet have a definitive set of comprehensive nutritional requirements for every human genetic variation.

Reduced calorie diets have been shown to extend the lifetime of mice and many other species.

Optimum Nutrition, re: longevity, is believed to require a reduction of calories from what would normally be consumed.

Schlenker, E and Roth, S. Williams Essentials of Nutrition and Diet Therapy. Elsevier Mosby: St. Louis, 2011.

http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/1984/pdf/1984-v13n01-p027.pdf · PDF file

http://www.unicef.org/progressforchildren/2006n4/index_undernutrition.html

http://www.scientificpsychic.com/health/optimum-nutrition.html