Nutrition plays important role in attaining and maintaining adequate health status. In health promotion strategies, the nurse must consider the nutritional state of the patient. Nutrients are essential for the body to operate at a homeostatic level. For example, adequate nourishment enhances the immune system function. This means, lack of balanced nutrition can lead to decrease integrity of the immune system which can increase risk for infection and other inflammatory processes (Oz, 2017). Nutrition is essential for growth and development, repair and regeneration of tissues, reproduction and ultimately maintenance of optimum health. In addition, practice of unhealthy dieting can also contribute to decline in health status or increase the risk of developing noncommunicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes etc. (“Health promotion: Improved nutrition,” 1983).
One of the obvious challenges for adequate nutrition is affordability. Eating healthy among emerging population is considered expensive. The cheapest foods are the fast foods and these are easily accessible, but they contribute to development of various pathologic conditions (Martinez et al., 2018). Another challenge is the duration required for preparing healthy foods. Most healthy food takes time to prepare, however, most individuals in the emerging populations find it difficult creating time to make healthy foods. Some individuals adhere to strict cultural diets and some of these may contain large calorie content which make further increase risk of morbidity (Seguin, et al., 2014).
Nutritional deficiencies negatively affect the normal functioning of the body. This can lead to disease conditions and ultimately decrease the quality of health of clients. Vitamin deficiencies can lead to a wide variety of health disorders from moderate to severe (example is vitamin A deficiency resulting in night blindness, immunosuppression). Similarly, excess nutrition can also cause disease. Nutrients are required in certain amounts and when this is exceeded, it may cause derangement from normal functioning. For example, excess vitamin A can cause alopecia, dry skin and liver problems (Gilbert, 2013).
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