ABSTRACT
The term ‘malnutrition’ refers to all deviations from adequate nutrition, including underand overnutrition, and encompasses both inadequacy of food or excess of food relative to need. ‘Undernutrition’ is the result of insufficient food caused primarily by an inadequate intake of dietary energy, whether or not any other nutrient is an additional limiting factor. This emphasis on dietary energy as a measure of food adequacy is justif ied, since food energy derived from a habitual diet brings with it most other nutrients. Hence, increased dietary energy is a necessary condition for nutritional improvement, even if it is not always sufficient in itself.
