Economic and other costs of malnutrition
June 10, 2017
The writer is a development anthropologist currently based in Fairfax, Virginia, and teaches at Georgetown and George Washington universities
It is ironic that a lack of adequately nutritious food is not only a sign of economic disempowerment, but that the resulting malnutrition in turn also causes significant economic losses to households, and to overall national incomes.
Besides outright hunger and food insecurity, malnutrition in Pakistan is a serious issue. Malnutrition is also related to the problem of poverty and the resulting lack of access to sufficient food, or else, lack of access to food of adequate nutritional value. Thus, even Pakistani families which seem to have enough food not to feel hungry, lack well-balanced diets, which results in widespread deficiencies in protein, iron and iodine.
