Repositioning Nutrition Education: Challenge for Public Health

Abstract

The fundamental role played by good nutrition in enabling personal, social and economic development is now widely recognized as presenting an important global challenge that has to be addressed if major national and international problems are to be resolved in the coming decades. Nutrition is crucial to both individual and for national development. Unlike many other countries in South Asia, nutrition-related health statistics are dismal in Pakistan with both under-nutrition and malnutrition highly prevalent. More than 40% of the population suffers from chronic malnutrition nationally. Pakistani women and children suffer the
highest rates of malnutrition in the world with a national nutritional stunting of 43.7% in children under five.
According to the National Nutrition Survey (NNS) of 2011, 70% of Pakistani children and adults have essential micronutrient deficiencies (vitamins and minerals)1 . Chronic disease are more evident and is contributing to the burden of disease with more than 40 % of women overweight or obese2 . The extent of the country’s nutrition problem is reflected by the fact that among the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), "malnutrition" remains the most important issue and continues to hinder all efforts towards achieving the remaining MDGs2-3. Therefore malnutrition is not simply a health hazard but a serious impediment towards Pakistan’s national development.