What are the 4 types of malnutrition?
Malnutrition can mean undernutrition or overnutrition. It can also mean an imbalance of macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, fats) or micronutrients (vitamins and minerals).
Undernutrition
Undernutrition is what most people think of when they think of malnutrition. Undernutrition is a deficiency of nutrients. You may be undernourished if you don’t have an adequate diet, or if your body has trouble absorbing enough nutrients from your food. Undernutrition can cause visible wasting of fat and muscle, but it can also be invisible. You can be overweight and undernourished.
Macronutrient undernutrition
Also called protein-energy undernutrition, this is a deficiency of macronutrients: proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Macronutrients are the main building blocks of your diet, the nutrients that your body relies on to produce energy to maintain itself. Without them — or even just one of them — your body soon begins to fall apart, breaking down tissues and shutting down nonessential functions to conserve its low energy.
Micronutrient undernutrition
Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals. Your body needs these in smaller amounts, but it does need them, for all types of functions. Many people are mildly deficient in certain vitamins and minerals from a lack of variety in their diet. You might not notice a mild vitamin deficiency affecting you, but as micronutrient undernutrition becomes more severe, it can begin to have serious and lasting effects.
Overnutrition
The World Health Organization has recently added overnutrition to its definition of malnutrition to recognize the detrimental health effects that can be caused by excessive consumption of nutrients. This includes the effects of overweight and obesity, which are strongly associated with a list of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). It also includes the toxicity that can result from overdosing specific micronutrients.
Macronutrient overnutrition
When your body has an excess of protein, carbohydrate and/or fat calories to use, it stores them away as fat cells in your adipose tissue. But when your body runs out of tissue for storage, the fat cells themselves have to grow. Enlarged fat cells are associated with chronic inflammation and with a host of metabolic disorders that follow. These can lead to NCDs such as diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease and stroke.
Micronutrient overnutrition
You can actually overdose on vitamin and mineral supplements. More research is needed to explain how this happens and how much is too much of a certain vitamin or mineral. In general, micronutrient overnutrition is uncommon and doesn’t occur from diet alone. But if you take mega doses of certain supplements, it can have toxic effects. It’s a good
