Microbiota — Undernutrition and weight loss

The term malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person intake or nutrients and energy and addresses to three groups of conditions:

1. Undernutrition

2. Micronutrient related malnutrition

3. Overweight.

1. Undernutrition — If you don’t have enough nutrients, you are malnourished. It is not always the lack of food, but the lack of quality food. Undernutrition means that you have a shortage of calories and most often of essential nutrients (when the access to food is denied). This is a specific type of malnourishment. As a result, you are being underweight, wasted, growth is stunted, happening usually after a weight loss event such as infectious disease associated with diarrhea. Stunting means that a person has a low height for age, and it is the result of a long term undernutrition during childhood, holding the child back from achieving their physical and intellectual potential. being underweight is a child with a low weight for age, and you can also be stunted or wasted.

There are clear differences in the gut of the undernourished people compared with healthy individuals. Most of the researches on undernutrition are focused on children, because they need fast growth for their optimal development. Undernutrition in children can have long term health implications: reduced growth rate, immune and cognitive development.