[Current and future status of human nutrition in the Central American isthmus]

Of the four major nutritional problems in the Central American Isthmus, calorie and protein deficiency, endemic goiter, nutritional anemias, and vitamin A deficiency, the most devastating is the first, calorie and protein malnutrition. Our present stage of advancement requires that the nutritional problem be solved through intensive and continued governmental action that would guarantee the people of this area an adequate diet without deteriorating the environment and without depleting natural resources. This would imply a reorientation of the scientific and technological research and a new agricultural policy, together with a new model of development that would place priority on these considerations, recognizing, at the same time, their demographic predominance.