undernourishment

Condition that results from consuming too little food over a period of time. Like malnutrition – the result of a diet that is lacking in certain nutrients (such as protein or vitamins) – undernourishment is common in poor countries. Both lead to a reduction in mental and physical efficiency, a lowering of resistance to disease in general, and often to deficiency diseases such as beriberi or anaemia. In the developing world, lack of adequate food is a common cause of death.

In 1996, an estimated 195 million children under the age of five were undernourished in the world. Undernourishment is not just a problem of the developing world: there were an estimated 12 million children eating inadequately in the USA in 1992. According to UN figures there were 200 million Africans suffering from undernourishment in 1996.