ABSTRACT
The human body acquires energy and other micronutrients through food consumption to keep it fit to work in society and to maintain various processes and perform physical activities. When energy intake matches the loss of energy due to physical activities, there will be no change in body composition and the person is said to be in energy balance; otherwise he/she is in energy imbalance. But when the energy intake is lower than the energy requirement, there will be under-nutrition. The level of under-nutrition in Bangladesh is among the highest in the world in terms of insufficient calorieconsumption. The daily calorie requirement for an average age and moderately active person has been recommended by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) for the South Asian region at 2122 kilocalories (kcal)/ capita/day. Individuals unable to obtain the set calorie requirement are considered to be in poverty and those incapable of obtaining 1805 kcal/day are said to be in extreme poverty. According to the Poverty Monitoring survey conducted by the BBS in 2004 about 40.1 per cent of rural households consumed less than 2122 kcal, while 18.2 per cent consumed less than or equal to 1805 kcal. This suggests that a large number of people in Bangladesh suffer from food deficit resulting in long-term under-nutrition and human misery.
