Undernutrition and the Developing Brain

Abstract

The possibility that undernutrition in early life may permanently reduce the intellectual capacity of men and women has become increasingly recognized in recent years.¹ Attempts to investigate a causal relationship are in progress in many parts of the privileged and underprivileged world, and there can be few more important problems in the fields of human nutrition and preventive pediatrics. For our own species, unlike pigs, sheep, and cattle, carcass weight and even athletic prowess are considerably less important than achieving our full intellectual potential. Undernutrition has for too long been considered in adult terms as a series of deficiency diseases whose main consequences can be reversed on restoration of the deficient component. In pediatrics, we must now be much more concerned about undernutrition at certain vulnerable stages of development having long-term sequelae which may be irreversible in spite of the most strenuous