Information on Hunger and Nutrition

There are ten minutes left of your class before lunch and everyone is begging the teacher to let the class out early because you are starving. But are you really starving? Hunger is our body’s way of telling us that it needs food. When your body feels that it has had enough to supply a sufficient amount of energy, it stops sending your brain the message that you are hungry. But there are people in our world who do not get the opportunity to have that feeling of being full. These people live day by day, hoping they can afford enough food for their family. In America, we take for granted our great supply of food that is offered to us, but do we think about when the next time we might eat is? We have no worries when it comes to our food, therefore, because of the health issues our world deals with today, we as a community need to come together and secure a balanced diet for the rest of the world. When people are not getting the sufficient amounts of nutrition daily, they are considered to have malnutrition. This means that their bodies will not grow or be healthy, which ultimately can cause mental and physical health. If the situation is severe enough, it can lead to death. People with malnutrition are typically from poor countries, because they cannot afford the foods that create a balanced diet. Because nutrients are needed for a healthy growth, young children are usually affected the most by malnutrition. Every year, fifteen million children will die from malnutrition. This is something that our community can easily fix. People who are malnourished also become unable to produce antibodies, which protect them from Typhoid and Diphtheria. So, the diseases are obtained easier, and are harder to fight. Hunger is actually obtained by not being able to afford the food. There might be plenty in the area, but poverty stricken families are not able to pay for the food that is available to them for purchase. It is a vicious cycle in which people get sick from being malnourished, they are unable to go to work because they are sick, and they bring home no money for the family to buy food. The cycle goes on and on until eventually if it gets too severe, they will die. While prices go up, it does not make it any easier on these extremely poor families to buy food. Most families survive on bread, since it is cheap. But bread only has very little amounts of calcium and iron, which is nothing near the vitamins you need to have a healthy body. Some of the Vitamins you need are Vitamin A, Folate/Vitamin B6/ Vitamin B12, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, and Vitamin K. You can find these in Fruits, Vegetables, meat, dairy, fish, nuts, and spinach. Being healthy can be easy if you have the right Vitamins. As a community we need to help the other people in our world to become healthy.