The second world conference on malnutrition began this Wednesday, November 19 in Rome. This phenomenon concerns both undernourishment and obesity.
“Think of the little Africans who are dying of hunger! Parents often say to children who refuse to finish their plate. Eating enough may seem natural in our Western societies, but this is obviously not the case in countries in Africa or Asia where two billion people remain undernourished. While conversely, 42 million and 500 million adults are overweight or obese.
190 countries represented
A strong contrast that worries and pushes the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to mobilize on the occasion of the second International Conference of nutrition, started this Wednesday. Representatives from 190 countries will be present to respond to this global challenge. “A part of our unbalanced world is still dying of hunger. And another part is stuffed to the point of obesity to such an extent that life expectancy is falling again ”recalled Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the opening of the conference. .
Undernourishment in the world
Obesity around the world
$ 3.5 trillion per year
Approached in different ways, the 60 action points announced during this conference mention in particular the major public health problem represented by this scourge: each year, 3.4 million people die from overweight and obesity against five million malnourished children. A scourge which represents a colossal sum in terms of public health expenditure.
Indeed, the FAO estimates the cost of malnutrition at 3.5 trillion dollars per year. “The human costs of malnutrition are very high: 805 million people are undernourished and 161 million children are stunted,” explains Leslie Amoroso, FAO nutrition expert. “This problem requires coordinated action in many areas. Health, the economy, but also the social sector, with particular emphasis on mothers and children.
WHO and FAO experts are therefore committed to “eliminating hunger on a global scale and preventing all forms of malnutrition, as well as investing more in healthy food, in particular by favoring fresh products over industrial products.
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