Opinion – Healthy Diets for a #ZEROHUNGER World

Mr Mario Castejón, Investment Support Officer, Investment Centre Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Subregional Office for the Caribbean

In recent weeks, you might have heard quite a bit about World Food Day. However, did you know how the actual day came about? World Food Day is an annual event that draws the world’s attention to the issue of global hunger, and calls for people in all walks of life to come together to declare their commitment to eradicate it in our lifetime. World Food Day is celebrated annually on 16 October, the anniversary of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) back in 1945. It has been held every year since 1980, and every year it has had a different focus. This year, it drew our attention to the fact that the theme, “Our actions are our future. Healthy Diets for a #ZEROHUNGER World”, serves to remind us that achieving Zero Hunger is about not only addressing hunger, but also nourishing people, while nurturing the planet. It called for actions across sectors to make healthy and sustainable diets accessible and affordable to everyone, and for everyone to start thinking about what we eat, to eliminate malnutrition

What is malnutrition, and why should we care? In layman and simplified terms, malnutrition occurs when a person’s diet contains too few nutrients or too many. Malnutrition covers two broad groups of conditions. One is ¨undernutrition¨, which leads to stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), underweight (low weight for age) and micronutrient deficiencies or insufficiencies (a lack of important vitamins and minerals). Undernutrition can result in physical and cognitive stunting, and makes children more susceptible to infectious diseases. Micronutrient deficiencies can cause severe illnesses and physical impairments, including anemia, mental retardation, blindness, and spinal and brain birth defects. The other group of conditions includes overweight, obesity and diet-related no communicable diseases (such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, various cancers and osteoarthritis. (WHO, 2011a).

In essence, regardless of its form, malnutrition keeps people from reaching their full potential, and has tremendous effects, both direct and indirect, in the social and economic development of nations. Malnourished children will underperform in school, limiting their future job opportunities. Malnourished adults are less able to work, contribute to local economies, and provide care for their families.

Malnourished mothers are more likely to give birth to underweight children, who will in turn have a higher risk of physical and cognitive impairment. So, “no small potatoes!” if you ask me! At the country level, the direct and indirect costs of malnutrition are high, but investing in solutions can improve nutritional outcomes long term, and could be very “profitable” from the perspective of society.

Undernutrition in the Caribbean has been declining over the past 20 years, while the prevalence of overweight and obesity have steadily increase. While Haiti has the highest prevalence of undernutrition in the region, with levels as high as 77 percent, the average level in Small Island States is close to 15 percent (FAO & CDB 2019). At the same time, however, obesity has grown steadily to reach levels ranging between 20-25% in most countries of the region. Even in Haiti, the country with lowest levels of obesity in the region, the percentage of people who are overweight has almost doubled during the last 15 years.

The increase in overweight is alarming, but the high prevalence of obesity raises even more concern, as obese people suffer much more serious health consequences and their risk of mortality compared to the non-obese population is greater. While overweight rates in the world and in Latin America and the Caribbean as a region doubled in the last 40 years, obesity practically tripled. The most significant increase was recorded in the Caribbean, where the prevalence in adults was quadrupled, from 6% to 25%, with particularly rapid growth in the last 15 years. In absolute terms, adults with obesity in the Caribbean increased from 760,000 to 6.6 million between 1975 and 2016.

Food regimes in the Caribbean have been characterised as unhealthy. According to FAO (2015), a high proportion of the imported food in the region is calorie-dense, high in fat and high in sugar, and these products are usually more affordable than healthier alternatives. Furthermore, poorer households tend to make less nutritious food choices in the absence of affordable, healthier alternatives. (WHO 2010).

Healthy diets and good nutrition start with food and agriculture, improved food systems can provide a wider variety of nutritious foods at more affordable prices. There are many tools that could be used to revert these terrifying trends, including fiscal policies to promote healthy diets, social protection systems, consumer education, food labelling, regulation of advertisement and marketing of foods and beverages, promotion of physical activity, etc. Many of these food system changes fall in the realm of governments. However, consumers – yes, that is you and me -, can contribute by improving personal health by making smart dietary choices. So there you go – we can all shape our future with our actions – today! Let’s think of what we eat and where our food comes from, and let our choices take us closer to a future with Zero Hunger!

Source: CARICOM TODAY