Classes of malnutrition EN (or ES>EN)

[Guest guest]

A text I am translating from Spanish uses " desnutrición calórica " (lit. caloric

malnutrition) and " desnutrición proteica " (lit. proteinic malnutrition). This

division is somewhat common in Spanish, but not so common as to be translated by

an authority I would trust.

The patients are said to have only mild to moderate degrees of malnutrition, and

so terms such as marasmus or kwashiorkor are not valid candidates, even though

some Spanish sources say that 'desutrición calórica' is a synonym for marasmus.

English terminology, as perhaps many here know, generally operates on the

premise that malnutrition may be predominantly one or the other, but that it

always involves deficiency in the other as well, and so only uses separate terms

(marasmus or kwashiorkor) when the malnutrition is quite severe (and even then

all descriptions involve both protein and calorie deficits). Otherwise

malnutrition is always " protein-calorie/energetic " or " calorie-protein " . I am

not finding a way that has precedent in English for me to communicate the

difference maintained by my text in English while still using malnutrition,

especially for the " caloric malnutrition " (there is a little precedent for

simple " protein malnutrition " ).

Such alternatives as " undernourishment " also don't help solve the need to

differentiate.

I tend to think that the most accurate way to portray this is to speak of

" caloric deficiency " and " protein deficiency " , but I would very much like to

know the thinking of the members of this group and in particular if anyone knows

of a good source discussing this distinction in English or Spanish. I have done

enough looking around that I don't think any such discussion is on the web, but

I would love to find out that I missed something. My suspicion is that my client

(whose medical exactness in English I am not sure of) may not see why I went to

'deficiency', and yet, if they second guess me and put " malnutrition " back in,

or do something else, it is not going to be acceptable in English.

Thanks much for your thoughts.

Burns