Food and Health

• Food security


  Whether people have continuous access to a diet of sufficient quantity and quality to meet daily health needs and lead an active life
• Four aspects of food security

  • Food availability - food production and trade in the supply sector
  • Food access - financial or physical access to food at the household level
  • The use of food - the way the body uses nutrients and energy is supported by food preparation, a balanced diet, and a proper diet
  • Stability - consistency of the other 3 aspects over a period of time
• There is enough food globally to feed everyone on the planet
• There are issues with food insecurity all around the world, in both LICs and HICs
• Weather, war, issues with crop growth, poverty, changing population rates and our changing diets impact food security
• Different areas of the world have too much or too little food
• We use nutrition indicators to measure and demonstrate these differences around the world
• Malnutrition


  When a person isn't consuming the correct nutrients to stay healthy. This can be a deficiency or surplus
• Indicators of malnutrition


  • Weight loss (or weight gain)
  • Stunted growth
  • Poor resistance to infection
  • Diseases e.g. Kwashiorkor, Marasmus
  • Brain development issues
• Indicators of malnutrition


  • Stunted growth – height is smaller (with regard to age)
  • Wasting – weight is lower (with regard to height)
  • Undernutrition – not eating enough food (energy) over a year to meet dietary standards, resulting in being underweight, stunting and/or wasting in children, and micronutrient deficiency
  • Micronutrient-related malnutrition/overnutrition – excessive nutrient consumption, resulting in being overweight, obesity, and diet-related noncommunicable diseases, e.g. heart disease, cancer and diabetes
• Malnutrition can cause famine. Death occurs by starvation or deficiency-related diseases
• African, South Asian and South American countries have higher percentages of undernutrition
• Due to North Korea's isolation, poor resource use and physical problems like natural disasters, undernutrition is high
• Global Hunger Index (GHI)


  Measures the rates of hunger on different scales
• Three categories that make up the GHI

  • Inadequate food supply
  • Child Mortality
  • Child Undernutrition
• Indicators that make up the GHI

  • Undernourishment – how much of the population is undernourished (not consuming enough calories), measuring both adults and children
  • Under-5 mortality – the number of deaths per 1000 births, measuring the deaths caused by hunger in vulnerable groups
  • Child stunting – children under 5 who are smaller (according to their age) as a result of chronic (longer periods of) undernutrition
  • Child wasting – children under 5 who are underweight (according to their height) as a result of acute (shorter period) undernutrition
• The GHI measures hunger from 0–100 (Low–Extremely Alarming)
• Overall, GHI is declining
• In 2022, no country was in the "Extremely Alarming" category
• Africa and South Asia have more countries labelled as "Alarming"
• Nutrient Transition


  A model showing advancement in diet, in relation to demographic, economic and social change
• The five sections of the Nutrient Transition

  • Hunter Gatherer - Palaeolithic man, Traditional early lifestyle
  • Early Agriculture - Early monoculture, Famine begins
  • End of famine - Period of industrialisation, Wealth increases, Nutrition gradually improves
  • Overconsumption - Noncommunicable or chronic diseases, Wealth increases
  • Behaviour change - Societal change and development
• Health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE)


  The length of time a person will live, unaffected by sickness or disease: it is how long a person lives in good health, considering those years in which a person may spend in ill health or injured
• HALE is higher in countries with quality healthcare and health policies aimed at decreasing disease severity and chronic conditions
• HALE is also higher in countries with high education rates
• The Americas have the highest HALE, whilst Africa has the lowest
• Infant Mortality


  The number of children who die before the age of 1 (per 1000 living births), which can indicate the maternal health levels in a country
• Infant mortality rates are lower in HICs and higher in LICs
• Infant deaths can be caused by malnutrition, premature birth and diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria and pneumonia
• The highest infant mortality rates are in Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of southern Asia 200 years ago
• The global infant mortality rate is decreasing, and in 2020 the average across the world was 4.3%
• Maternal Mortality


  The yearly death rate of women as a result of/exacerbated by pregnancy or childbirth (or within 42 days of a pregnancy termination)
• Maternal mortality is higher in LICs and lower in HICs
• Higher maternal mortality rates occur in much of Subsaharan Africa, southern Asia and South America
• As healthcare and hygiene have improved, maternal mortality has gone down
• Disease Continuum


  The Epidemiology Transition describes fluctuations in disease and morbidity, directly linking to the Nutrition Transition and Demographic Transition
• As development improves and diets change, communicable (infectious) disease rates will go down and noncommunicable (non-infectious) disease rates will increase
• Where the lines intersect indicates a dual burden of disease, where both communicable and non-communicable diseases exist, affecting some LICs and NEEs e.g. India
• Systems approach


  Looks at all components, relationships and feedback effects within a process
• Components of the food production system

  • Inputs - human inputs like labour, money, and technology, physical inputs like land, soil, seeds and water
  • Transfers/processes/stores - weeding, ploughing, sowing, milking, rearing, shearing etc., decision-making by states and farmers, changes and patterns in land use
  • Outputs - positive outputs like crops, milk, eggs, animal fodder, profits/wealth, negative outputs like waste, air/water/land pollution, soil erosion