Gender Issues in Children's Nutrition Security in Pakistan

Authors

Gautam Hazarika, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2010

Abstract

This essay seeks to acquaint lay readers with the salient issues of gender in young children’s nutrition security in Pakistan. It will be useful at the outset to distinguish between food security and nutrition security. Food security, defined as access to sufficient food foran active and healthy life, is normally viewed in caloric terms. However,calorically sufficient food does not assure adequate nourishment sincedeficiencies in micronutrients such as iron, vitamin A, and iodine cause malnourishment even when diets are calorically adequate. For example,the higher incidence of iodine deficiency diseases like goiter and cretinism in many inland mountainous regions of the world, such as northern Pakistan, is due to the lack of seafood in diets and subsistence upon crops grown in iodine-poor soil rather than caloric insufficiency

Comments

©2010 Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,Washington, D.C

Recommended Citation

Hazarika, G. (2010). Gender Issues in Children’s Nutritional Security in Pakistan. Hunger Pains: Pakistan's Food Insecurity. Michael Kugelman and Robert M. Hathaway (Ed.) Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, 2010: 86-98

First Page

86

Last Page

98

Publication Title

Hunger Pains: Pakistan's Food Insecurity