Malnutrition occurs when what someone needs to eat is very different from what they actually eat. The usual way of measuring malnutrition is to look at three different ratios:

·how tall someone is compared to how much they weigh
·how tall someone is for their age
·how much someone weighs for their age

A malnourished person is usually too skinny compared to their height and is neither tall enough nor heavy enough for their age. If they are given enough food, they may gain weight rapidly until their height/weight ratio becomes a healthy one.

If Radhika does not get enough food for the first five years of her life, how would that malnourishment most likely affect her growth?

A.) She will grow more slowly than she otherwise would have, but she will reach the same height.

B.) She will always be too skinny for her height.

C.) She will stop growing at a later age than she otherwise would have.

D.) She will grow up to be shorter than she otherwise would have been.

Malnutrition is a pathological condition caused by lack of intake or absorption of nutrients. Depending on the severity, the disease may be divided into first, second and third degree. There are very serious cases whose consequences can be irreversible even if the person lives on. However, malnutrition can be mild and translate, without any record of symptoms, into an inadequate diet.

Unfortunately, malnutrition affects many children around the world. Many children are malnourished as a result of the extreme poverty that prevents these children from achieving good levels of nutrition that will allow their bodies to grow and weigh properly. Other children achieve malnutrition due to health problems and other factors. However, according to the text presented in the question, We can state that if Radhika cannot get enough food in her first 5 years of life, she will be malnourished and grow to be lower than she would have been if she had appropriate levels of nutrition.