CLINICAL NUTRITION

Lesson 2: Protein calorie malnutrition

Introduction

A nutritional deficiency disease ultimately develops when inadequate amounts of essential nutrienvts are provided to the cells for their normal metabolic functions. The nutritional deficiency may be of two types as per origin namely primary and secondary nutritional inadequacy.

A primary nutritional inadequacy is caused by a faulty diet one that lacks essential nutrients either in kind or amount or provides an imbalance of nutrients.

Secondary or conditioned nutritional inadequacy results from factors that interfere with ingestion, absorption, or utilization of nutrients as well as from metabolic or functional conditions that increase the requirement for cause unusual destruction or abnormal excretion of nutrients.