Читать книгу Nutrition For Dummies - Carol Ann Rinzler - Страница 17

Nutritional status is a phrase that describes the state of your health as related to your diet. Malnutrition is what happens when the diet goes wrong. Most people think of malnutrition as the result of diet too low in calories and essential nutrients, such as vitamins, but a diet that delivers too much food leads to malnutrition in the form of obesity. The latter is more common in developed countries with an abundant food supply and a relatively sedentary population. The former may arise from

 A diet that simply doesn’t provide enough food: This situation can occur in times of famine or through voluntary starvation due to an eating disorder or because something in your life disturbs your appetite. Among older people, malnutrition may follow tooth loss or age-related loss of appetite or because they live alone and sometimes just forget to eat.

 A diet that, while otherwise adequate, is deficient in a specific nutrient: This kind of nutritional inadequacy can lead to a deficiency disease, such as beriberi — the disease caused by a lack of vitamin B1 (thiamine).

 A metabolic disorder or medical condition that prevents your body from absorbing specific nutrients, such as carbohydrates or protein: One common example is diabetes, the inability to produce enough insulin, the hormone your body uses to metabolize (digest) carbohydrates. Another is celiac disease, a condition that makes it impossible for the body to digest gluten, a protein in wheat. Need more info on either diabetes or celiac disease? Check out Diabetes For Dummies, by Alan L. Rubin; Diabetes Meal Planning & Nutrition For Dummies, by Toby Smithson and Alan L. Rubin; and Gluten-Free All-in-One For Dummies, a five-books-in-one bargain on living with celiac disease (all books published by Wiley).

Doctors and registered dietitians have many tools with which to rate your nutritional status. They can

 Review your medical history to see whether you have any conditions (such as dentures) that may make eating certain foods difficult or that interfere with your ability to absorb nutrients.

 Perform a physical examination to look for obvious signs of nutritional deficiency, such as dull hair and eyes (a lack of vitamins?), poor posture (not enough calcium to protect the spinal bones?), or extreme thinness (not enough food? an underlying disease?).

 Order laboratory blood and urine tests that may identify early signs of malnutrition, such as the lack of red blood cells that characterizes anemia caused by an iron deficiency.

At every stage of life, the aim of a good diet is to maintain a healthy nutritional status.