Diet therapy and public health
Abstract
A major threat to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and Universal
Health Coverage continues to be malnutrition [1,2]. The term “malnutrition” encompasses
both under- and over-nutrition, both of which coexist and interact, especially in low-tomedium-
income countries (LMICs) [3]. As a result, the term DBM has been coined [4] to
describe this phenomenon, and this is further described as a “malnutrition syndemic” [5]
if malnutrition includes micronutrient deficiencies. Research has implicated DBM and
syndemic malnutrition in the development of major metabolic diseases, such as coronary
heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and cancer [6]. According to the WHO [7], at a global
level, 7 of the 10 leading causes of death in 2019 were metabolic diseases.