A importância da ingestão diária de micronutrientes para o desenvolvimento fisiológico em crianças e jovens

Abstract

Currently social development is considered one of the factors associated with malnourishment observed in urban populations. The current lifestyle of people, based on little time for adequate food, leads directly to a poor nutrition, with serious implications in the long term. Malnourishment does not only refer to the lack of mass or body fat, but also the lack of essential nutrients to the body, and is considered a multifactorial disease, observed mainly in developing countries, and can be triggered by several factors, such as the absence of a healthy diet, poor nutrient absorption and even the lack of food. The bones are significantly affected by malnourishment, most notably by the lack of the element calcium in the diet. In addition, the brain, the most complex biological structure known and which operates in the control of vital functions in the body, whether physiological (movements, sensory perceptions, satiety) or cognitive (speech, abstraction, decision making), is also widely affected during malnourishment. This study aimed to review the impact of malnourishment in these two systems especially in the stages of childhood development, caused by a deficiency of some nutrients and to characterize the types and amounts of nutrients necessary to ensure the proper development of the children. The bibliographic review was conducted using the databases SciELO, Google Scholar and Base Alimentarium UNICAMP (BIBFEA) employing the following terms of reference: rickets, vitamins, micronutrients, nutrition in childhood, cognition and bones. The main results reveal that the lack of nutrients is greatly associated with bone and cognitive changes in childhood, such as the lack of calcium and vitamin D-related rickets and muscle disorders and selenium and vitamin Edeficiency related to cognitive deficits.