Malnutrition according to WHO refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalance in a person's intake of energy or nutrients. Malnutrition is of two types
Undernutrition -this is when you don't get adequate amount of nutrients the body needs.
Overnutrition which leads to overweight and obesity. In Nigeria the latter is common among adults while the former is rampant among children especially in the Northern part of Nigeria. Causes of malnutrition in Nigeria ranges from poverty, inadequate food production, overpopulation, illiteracy,poor food preservation techniques and culture. In the Northern part of Nigeria where we have the highest number of malnourished children,the greatest factor that brought about this is ignorance and illiteracy. Most northerners lack formal education.
They don't value education as much as the western and Eastern and so they lack information.As the popular saying goes... Knowledge is power. They have poor eating habits and lifestyle. They don't even know nutrients needed by the body in the right proportion. So instead of eating healthy , they eat to stay alive.
Millions of children suffer from malnourished related disease and even death
. So what is the solution to this? The government should provide free education for northerners and educate them on the importance of attending school and getting a formal education. It will improve their lifestyle in feeding. Government should also make use of the media(television and radio) and get them informed about right feeding habits in their local dialect.
If the number of malnourished children is highly reduced in the Northern part of Nigeria, then Nigeria has reduced malnutrition children by half or more.