Nutrition is a process by which a living organism assimilates food and uses it for ones growth and replacement of tissues. Many common health problems can be prevented by the intake of healthy diet. On the contrary, a poor diet may have injurious health effects such as obesity, kwashiorkor, etc. Asia is home to a more diversified community in comparison to any other part of the world. Like its diversified nations and peoples, the climate and geography of Asia are also diverse. From the lush rice paddies of the Philippines to the tropical rainforests of Indonesia, there is a huge variety of spices, food and fruit in this part of the world.
During the last decade, the South-East Asian countries have shown a general uptrend in the food production. Despite a marked increase in population in many of the South-East Asian countries, there was a significantly higher production per capita in 1988-90 especially in Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam. But, no evident uptrend has been seen in respect to milk, pulses, horticultural products, meat or poultry production. An unfortunate feature of nutrition is the prevailing high incidence of the birth of low birth weight babies which reflects the state of maternal malnutrition during pregnancy. There is a considerable decline in the florid nutritional deficiency diseases over the last decade, but iron deficiency anemia and goiter are still the major health problems amongst people. With the changing trends and cultures among the middle classes in these countries, there are escalated evidences of diseases such as diabetes and coronary heart disease. According to WHO, more than two billion people in the world suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, a significant number of these being in Asia.
Food security in Asia is also very fluctuating. Because of the complicated interconnection between social and political factors, food