HUMWeek 2022

Day 4: Nutrition

Why is Nutrition Important?

Foods, especially ones filled with nutrients, provide us with energy necessary for us to survive. A good nutritional diet helps with growth, and is critical when children are young. Globally, there has been an increase in unhealthy nutrition due to the foods available to different communities, which can lead to either consuming too little food or too much food.  

Malnutrition is a Rampant Issue

What is Malnutrition?

925 million people in the world are starving, and in 2020, up to 811 million people went hungry. With 660 million projected to experience hunger in 2030, a number higher by 30 million due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Malnutrition includes 3 subtypes 

  1. Undernutrition: Wasting (not having access to food due to food waste), stunting (being too short due to lack of nutrients), and underweight (being below the needed weight to grow) 

  2. Inadequate vitamins or minerals consumption

  3. Presence of noncommunicable diseases as a result of obesity, being overweight, or diet 

In 2016, ~155 million children under 5 years of age were stunted, and 41 million children were overweight or obese. Both of those issues relate to a lack of healthy nutrient consumption and lack of access to healthy food. 45% of deaths among children under 5 is linked to undernutrition.  

Eating Disorders and Malnutrition

*Please read this section at your own discretion if this topic causes you stress or discomfort. 

One cause of malnutrition is an eating disorder (ED). Usually, EDs and ED behaviors emerge in childhood or adolescence, and continue as a child/teen ages. For instance, Between 35%-57% of young girls engage in ED behaviors like purging or using diet pills, and at least 9% of the world and the US suffer from an ED. 

This is dangerous to people’s health, as eating disorders can lead to malnutrition. For example, the most common ED, Binge-Eating Disorder, can hurt one’s health as it leads to excessive consumption of food, which could lead to diet-related noncommunicable diseases. 

What counts as Food waste?

Food waste is any food that is thrown away despite being safe to eat. Examples of food waste are: uneaten food that is thrown away, crops not collected because of prices or necessity fluctuations, problems during food production, and food not being aesthetically ‘up to standard’ but safe to consume. 

Worldwide

Annually, 2.87 trillion pounds of food are wasted annually, which is enough to feed up to 3 billion people (keep in mind, 925 million people in the world are starving). 

One of the biggest reasons for global food waste is errors in the production process, such as insufficient infrastructure and poor storage. In order to limit and reduce food waste, food industries must make changes to improve the production process. 

About 47 million children are impacted by food wasting, which causes them to have worse health due to increased malnutrition. To address this, UNICEF launched the No Time to Waste initiative, which aims to reduce food waste and malnutrition among children worldwide.

In the U.S. 

In the US, 108 billion pounds (the equivalent of 130 billion meals and $408 billion) of food are wasted every tear. 

Households contribute to 39% of all U.S. food waste (42 billion pounds) 

The USDA set a goal in 2015 to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030. This is done through the U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champion program and the EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge, which encourage businesses to reduce their waste. 

Food Waste Facts