NUTRITIONAL STATUS, DIETARY PATTERN AND PREVALENCE OF SOME CHRONIC DISEASES AMONG ADULTS IN BIDA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

NUTRITIONAL STATUS, DIETARY PATTERN AND PREVALENCE OF SOME CHRONIC DISEASES AMONG ADULTS IN BIDA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

1.0    INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background Introduction

The major cause of mortality in developed and developing countries of the world are diseases in which nutritional lifestyle plays an important role. The choices of what people eat are determined by various factors such as religions, customs and socio-economic differences (Shehu et al., 2011).

The environments affect individual‘s lifestyle. Changing these factors in the direction of nutritional lifestyle patterns could postpone the age of onset of permanent mobidity, disability, disease occurrences and death and could have a major effect on quality of life (Waijers et al., 2006). Nutrition as the science of food and its relationship to health has been recognized in recent years as the cornerstone of socioeconomic development (Parks, 2009). Adequate nutrition is important for a variety of reasons, including optimal cardiovascular function, muscle strength, respiratory ventilation, protection from infection, wound healing and psychological well-being (Martin, 2006).

Adequate nutrition entails a diet that contains the constituents (carbohydrate, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals) that are required for body building, energy supply, body defense and regulatory functions in quantities commensurate with the body need. Malnutrition refers to either inadequate intake of nutrients due to lack of food, ignorance, socio cultural factors, and diseases among other causes, resulting in underweight and other nutrient deficiency diseases; or intake of nutrients in excess of body requirements due to poor dietary habit (erroneously perceived as a sign of affluence), resulting in overweight and obesity.

NUTRITIONAL STATUS, DIETARY PATTERN AND PREVALENCE OF SOME CHRONIC DISEASES AMONG ADULTS IN BIDA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, NIGER STATE, NIGERIA