Consequências nutricionais da urbanização em Santa Cruz do Sul - RS.

Abstract

The rapid urban expansion of Santa Cruz do Sul has led to a visible unbalanced growth of the outskirts of the city where the lower income and marginalized population live, and the consequences of this process are related to the nutritional wellbeing of pregnant women. This study aims to analyze the consequences of urbanization and its relation to pregnant women exposed to changes in their nutritional standards with a diet based on carbohydrates and proteins that are of low biological value. An analytical qualitative and descriptive method was used for the study without testing the hypotheses. It was concluded that the condition of nutritional wellbeing of the pregnant women doesn't just depend on having a balanced diet, but also on other comprehensive factors of human needs such as housing, schooling, basic sanitary conditions and prenatal care. The political changes and macro-economic fluctuations that have occurred over recent years, associated with the main economic activity of the municipality of Santa Cruz do Sul and region and structured in a way to meet the solid productive chain because of its principal export product, have revealed new development logic. This has led to the expansion of the city, with a subsequent increase in the size of the urban area that together with the enlargement of the outskirts has produced a clear social and geographical segregation of the lower income populace who are prevented ftom enjoying facilities and basic urban services because óf their low family income, which has consequently affected their eating habits and diet standards. The urban expansion leads to, and involves, a frequent social transformation process. This case study found a high incidence of low weight babies, those of less than 2500 g, in these outskirts of the city, despite the region and the municipality having high levels of social and economic development, and that those families with low or insufficient income have a tendency towards a greater frequency of intrauterus malnutrition.