[Malnutrition and weight excess: a paradoxical condition in Mauretanian Adrar (author's transl)].

Data and comments from a survey conducted in Atar town with 3.534 individuals controlled. In children, kwashiorkor is rare but malnutrition is observed mainly in female babies between 1 and 3 years. It is caused by on the one hand a too late and too rapid weaning, and on the other hand to ancestral habits giving priority care to male babies. In adult populations, the main fact observed is an over-weight in women, with subsequently, a higher rate of blood hypertension and cerebro-vascular accidents than in men. This over-weight is a symbol of wealthiness and resorts to a traditional pattern of feminine beauty. Public health service and nutrition education can promote the use of a larger variety of foods which has little possibility of changing quickly an esthetic mode. But this concept will slowly recess, according to new ways of life.