Prevalence of nutritional problems in the world

It would seem reasonable to direct most nutritional research towards those problems that most afflict mankind, but in the present state of knowledge it is difficult to ascertain which these are. The first part of this paper will outline some of the difficulties but subsequently a rank order will be given which no doubt will be controversial. Thus the subject matter of this paper has revealed perhaps the most important area of research, namely the establishment of criteria for malnutrition which would enable workers to ascertain its magnitude. The research would show the numbers of people who are malnourished and would indicate their distribution by age, sex, geographical area and social class. It would not, however, indicate the effect of malnutrition on the quality of life. That malnutrition causes human misery seems beyond question, but to compare, for example, that due to obesity and dental caries on the one hand, and xerophthalmia and goitre on the other, requires value judgements that are difficult to make. It could be argued that the malnutrition of affluence is self-inflicted whereas that of the developing world is due to poverty and ignorance. Nevertheless, both are extremely costly in human and in economic terms and a more objective approach may be by considering the costs to the community.