Hunger is a meaningful topic for me because of an article I read
a few weeks ago. Children that have no access to food not only harm their body
but it also affects their mental state. There have been researchers that
have revealed that poor diet during early development (0-3yrs) leads to
learning and memory deficits, lower IQ and school achievement, and behavioral
problems in childhood and adolescence (Mcgregor, (1995). Hunger has also been
linked to conditions such as Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia. In UK,
they are battling with hunger and a lack of resources to obtain food. Children
are suffering extreme neglect and malnutrition. At an alarming rate, children
are dying from hunger in the UK. The government is currently exploring
solutions to this problem but not fast enough.
Reference:
Grantham-Mcgregor, S. (1995). A Review of Studies of the Effect
of Severe
Malnutrition on Mental Development. The Journal of Nutrition.
125:
2233S-2238S
Hi Elijah,
ReplyDeleteThose are interesting statistics considering they are from a developed country. The damaging effects of hunger that you mentioned are precisely why each child, who attends my Head Start, gets a meal. At first, I thought I didn't know any hungry children, but then I realized that there is one girl, who comes in the afternoon, who may come to school hungry. She eats two full plates of lunch every day and is shorter and skinny.
Thanks for your post!
Liz Thomas
Isn't it interesting that for all the news reporting, we don't hear much about hunger/malnutrition with regards to children. And here in the United States there are two sides to this food concern. Severe obesity, high blood pressure, childhood diabetes, that's one side, especially here in the United States. Then there are the children who are basically only eating the food provided from school or child development program. My church does a back program here in Schertz TX where provide snacks for children who otherwise would not get them. When looking at the child development aspect to these issues, it doesn't look good from either side. Malnutrition means a child is not receiving enough nutrition for their bodies to develop the best it can. When there is obesity, it slows their body down and dev3elop diseases which we always associated with a much older generation. You picked a topic that most definitely can be addressed with success if people can see the urgency in it.
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