Undernutrition 



HAEOLD L. HIGGINS 



CINCINNATI 



In undernutrition the body gets insufficient nutriment from without to 

 meet its needs. Included under this subdivision are conditions varying 

 from total starvation to a failure of the body to obtain any one or severaj 

 of those constituents necessary in a proper diet. The body, failing to get 

 sufficient nutriment from the food, obtains it from the tissues, frequently 

 more or less to its own temporary, if not permanent, disadvantage. ; , 



In surveying the possible causes of undernourishment, one has to con,- 

 sider the composition of the body. The body tissues consist of proteins, 

 fats, carbohydrates and mineral elements, as the bases, calcium, sodiuin, 

 potassium, magnesium, iron, and the acid elements and groups, as chlor- 

 ides, phosphates, carbonates, iodine, etc. ; the tissues also consist of other 

 substances as cholesterine, and especially of water. These materials, all so 

 essential to life and growth in one way or another, must be replenished 

 almost constantly by the food ; if it is not done, undernutrition of various 

 degrees is practically sure to develop. The proteins of the animal body 

 are numerous and all are very complex and different from any other any- 

 where ; they are built up from the different amino-acids in various quanti- 

 ties and arrangements ; the food must not only contain protein to properly 

 meet the protein needs of the body, but it must contain protein with |lie 

 proper amino-acids. The so-called vitamines, fat soluble A and water 

 soluble B, small amounts of which are recognized as being necessary in the 

 diet, very likely play a similar role. But in addition to the above con- 

 stituents which are necessary for repair and growth of body tissues, there 

 are the constituents fats and carbohydrates necessary to furnish the 

 body with fuel for its activities and heat. 



Thus it is apparent that undernutrition covers a very large field, and 

 in this chapter one is naturally forced to deal with only a few phases of 

 the subject. This chapter will therefore be limited more or less to the 

 discussion of human undernutrition seen in absolute starvation, in starvar 

 tion where only water is taken, and where the calories taken in the food 

 are insufficient to meet the energy requirements of the body, Many prol|- 

 lems of undernutrition are met in every-day life, and frequently, as in the 

 late war, assume a national importance. A few such problems would 



