Category: Nutrition

The importance of food systems and the environment for nutrition

Published: 24 November 2020

Publication: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Authors: Jessica Fanzo, Alexandra L Bellows, Marie L Spiker, Andrew L Thorne-Lyman, and Martin W Bloem

Read the original paper here.

Summary 

  • Food systems contribute to and are vulnerable to ongoing climate and environmental changes that threaten their sustainability
  • We’re going to need more research to tell us what food policy changes we should make to ensure everyone has access to nutritious food despite the impacts of climate change.
  • We need to think about this key question: how can both human and planetary health thrive while meeting the demands of a growing human population, and if we can’t have it all, what trade-offs are we willing to live with?

Background

  • Food systems involve the production, processing, packaging, distribution, marketing, purchasing, consumption, and waste of food.
  • By “transforming” (improving) food systems, we could make healthy food more accessible and reduce environmental impact 
  • We need a lot more research to figure out how best to structure this transformation
  • Silos within the field make this research harder

Research Gaps

The impact of climate change on food systems

  • The link between climate and food systems is getting more and more attention, but there are still a lot of gaps in our knowledge. Specifically, we need more research on:
    •  The “missing middle” of the food supply chain (aka anything other than people’s diets and agricultural production) 
    • How climate change will affect non-staple crops (most research to date has only looked at staple crops).
    • How to create context-specific policies (eg. financial incentives, targeted messaging campaigns etc.) that encourage/allow people to eat sustainable diets and how to measure whether these policies are working:

Food systems 

  • Diets. We need more information on:  
    • The best way to measure how sustainable someone’s diet is
    • How people’s diets are changing as incomes rise
    • Healthy, locally appropriate, and sustainable diets are sometimes at odds with one another. How should we prioritize?
      • “One of the shortcomings of the EAT–Lancet Commission report was that it provided a single healthy reference diet for the world, and did not take into account that healthy and sustainable diets may differ in their availability, accessibility, and cost at the global, regional, and individual levels. Even more so, what is considered healthy is not always sustainable, and what is considered a sustainable diet is not always a healthy one.”
  • Food safety. We need more information on:
    • The danger of using pesticides and chemicals, and whether these dangers affect consumer purchases.
    • The danger of plastics (in food packaging, production etc.).
  • Food loss and waste.  We need more information on:
    • How to measure and reduce food waste/loss.

Interesting Stats

  • “Some models suggest that changes in food availability due to climate change, specifically reduced availability of fruit and vegetables, are estimated to result in an additional 529,000 deaths by 2050.”
  • “Globally, agriculture and livestock production utilize ∼40% of arable land account for ∼70% of fresh water withdrawn for human purposes, and are responsible for ∼11% of GHG emissions (although some estimates range from 11% to 24% depending on what is counted).”
  • “​​Food wasted at the retail and consumer levels alone averages 1217 calories, 33 g protein, 6 g fiber, and 286 g Ca per person per day.”

Figure: Link between food systems and the environment

The COVID-19 crisis will exacerbate maternal and child undernutrition and child mortality in low- and middle-income countries

Published: July 2021

Publication: Nature Food

Authors: Saskia Osendarp, Jonathan Kweku Akuoku , Robert E. Black , Derek Headey, Marie Ruel , Nick Scott , Meera Shekar, Neff Walker, Augustin Flory , Lawrence Haddad, David Laborde , Angela Stegmuller , Milan Thomas  and Rebecca Heidkamp

Read the original paper here.

Summary:

  • COVID-related disruptions to food and health systems mean cases of malnutrition around the world are likely to get worse.
    • People also have less money and therefor are turning to less expensive sources of calories such as starchy staples and eating fewer nutrient-dense foods.
  • The study authors used statistical models to predict what these disruptions would do to malnutrition rates.
  • They calculated “optimistic”, “moderate” and “pessimistic” outcomes.
  • After the paper’s publication, the authors stated the pessimistic outcomes are the most likely.
  • Using the pessimistic model as the authors recommend, they predict that by the end of 2022, COVID-19-related disruptions could result in an additional:
    • 13.6  million wasted children 
    • 3.6 million stunted children 
    • 283,000 additional child deaths
    • 4.8 million maternal anaemia cases
    • 3 million children born to women with a low BMI 
    • US$44.3 billion in future productivity losses due to excess stunting and child mortality.
  • To make up for the demands of the projected undernutrition increases, the authors predict we will need an additional $1.7 billion per year.
  • The report also predicts that ODA for nutrition will be 19% less through 2030 than it would have been without COVID, accompanied by a similar decrease in domestic health budgets.
  • We could save a lot of babies from being born small, preterm or stillbirth by a) switching the prenatal vitamins we give out from iron folic acid (IFA) to multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS) and b) Give balanced energy and protein supplements to malnourished pregnant women.
  • The report argues1 that fewer children would be impacted if we move funding away from providing complementary foods and instead allocate resources toward:
    • Balanced energy protein supplementation
    • Breastfeeding promotion
    • IYCF counseling at 6–23 months of age in food-secure households
    • Wasting treatment
    • Vitamin A supplementation

  • These numbers should make it clear to decision makers that the pandemic is causing levels of undernutrition to rise in LMICs and that we need to urgently increase ODA and domestic funding to address this crisis.

Key Quotes:

  • “The COVID-19 pandemic has created a nutritional crisis in LMICs. Without swift and strategic responses by subnational, national, regional and international actors, COVID-19 will not only reverse years of progress and exacerbate disparities in disease, malnutrition and mortality, but will also jeopardize human capital development and economic growth for the next generation.”
  • “While women of reproductive age and young children are largely spared COVID-19’s direct effects (that is, serious disease and death), our projections demonstrate that, regardless of the scenario, the COVID-19 crisis is expected to have dramatic indirect effects on maternal and child undernutrition and child mortality in the current generation.”
  • “The nutritional impacts of the COVID-19 crisis could have massive, long-term productivity consequences that could extend to future generations. Poor nutrition during early life stunts both physical and cognitive development, affects schooling performance and adult productivity, increases the risks of overweight/obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases later in life, and triggers the intergenerational transmission of malnutrition.”

1 The article notes that “The optimal results and allocative efficiency gains will vary across countries, depending on demographics, epidemiological factors and baseline intervention coverages, as well as context-specific costs, priority targets, delivery platforms and other constraints.”

Ensuring Women Have Access to Proper Nutrition Grows Their Power

Image Source: Jonathan Torgovnik, Getty Images, Images of Empowerment

By: Megan Deitchler, Initiative Director, Intake; Sandy Remancus, Initiative Director, Alive & Thrive; Blythe Thomas, Initiative Director, 1,000 Days

Every person has the fundamental human right to access safe, affordable, and nutritious foods, but women and girls are twice as likely to suffer from malnutrition as men and boys due to a combination of biological, social, and cultural factors. We must do better to change this reality. Ahead of this year’s International Women’s Day, 1,000 Days and our sister Initiatives at FHI Solutions, Alive & Thrive and Intake, are calling for greater action to improve the nutrition of women and girls worldwide.

We know that well-nourished women and girls are healthier, more productive, and more likely to finish school. Malnutrition is a barrier that keeps women from accessing their full potential, which reinforces women’s oppression in all aspects of their lives. Good nutrition and women’s empowerment go hand in hand. A more intentional focus that targets improving women’s’ and girls’ nutrition is critical to making concrete, cost-effective, and sustainable improvements to the status of girls around the world. Simply put – ensuring women have access to proper nutrition can help them grow their power. Consequently, gender equality and increasing women’s decision-making powers are crucial to overcome nutritional vulnerabilities and break the inter-generational cycle of malnutrition.

Good nutrition is an essential building block in our fight for gender equality, but our approaches thus far have been siloed. Considering the interlinks between a woman’s health and her ability to claim her agency, actors and service providers across health, social protection, agriculture, and women’s empowerment sectors must prioritize optimal nutrition for women in their own right. Failure to harness a nuanced approach to these interlinked issues, from the community level to the global, will continue to leave women behind.

Over the next two years, FHI Solutions will work hand in hand with our diverse and multi-sectoral allies, ranging from community organizations to government leaders, to galvanize global- and country-level momentum for a compelling Women’s Nutrition Action Agenda. Through this Action Agenda, we aim to:

  1. Advance women’s nutrition as a global development priority of major donors and in target priority low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)
  2. Inform and inspire more and better use of new and existing financing for nutrition on priority World Health Assembly nutrition targets (anemia, low birthweight, and exclusive breastfeeding) from target LMICs and donors
  3. Influence delivery platform gatekeepers in health, including primary health care / Universal Health Coverage platforms, as well as other sectors to integrate preventive nutrition interventions in target LMICs
  4. Advocate for the use of reliable, validated metrics, such as the Global Diet Quality Score, to track progress in achieving healthy diets for all, especially women and girls

Nutrition programming is an underleveraged tool in the fight to advance girls’ rights and empowerment. By leveraging targeted nutrition interventions as a key part of gender equality programming, women’s empowerment actors can give a cost-effective boost to their investments and move the world back closer to reaching Sustainable Development Goal 5 – SDG 5. We are committed to working together with critical partners, both inside the global nutrition community and beyond, as we build a multi-sectoral policy, advocacy, and communications effort to inspire national and international commitment to, and scaled-up investment for, women’s nutrition. We must ensure the nutrition and health of girls and women to fully support their ability to build vibrant lives of their own making.

Kicking Off #March4Nutrition – Join Us All Month Long

In honor of National Nutrition Month, 1,000 Days is kicking off our annual #March4Nutrition campaign to amplify the importance of nutrition for moms and babies around the world. We invite you to follow #March4Nutrition on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all month long and join the conversation. 

This #March4Nutrition, we’ll get back to basics and focus on good nutrition in the 1,000-day window. Throughout pregnancy, infancy and beyond, families need good nutrition, breastfeeding support, and nurturing care in order to thrive. 

Every week in March, we’ll dive deep into a new theme and explore how nutrition lays the foundation for brighter, healthier futures. Find more information below and check out our social media toolkit full of graphics and messages to share with your online communities!  

Week 1 March 1-8: Women’s nutrition – Access to proper nutrition can help women grow their power. 

Week 2 March 9-16: Benefits of breastfeeding – Breastfeeding has critical benefits for both moms and babies.  

Week 3 March 17-24: Healthy foods and drinks for babies and toddlers – Growing babies need good nutrition to flourish. 

Week 4 March 25-31: Raise your voice – Help us spark action to change the world for moms, babies and families, 1,000 days at a time.  

At 1,000 Days, we believe that every family, everywhere deserves the opportunity to have a healthy 1,000-day window and beyond – and that starts with access to good nutrition. 

Join us this month as we #March4Nutrition for moms and babies! 

Why Nutrition Matters

Nutrition in the First 1,000 Days – Why It Matters

Good nutrition during pregnancy and the first years of a child’s life provides the essential building blocks for brain development, healthy growth and a strong immune system. In addition, a growing body of scientific research indicates that the foundations for lifelong health—including predispositions to obesity and certain chronic diseases—are largely set during this 1,000 day period.

There are three crucial stages in the first 1,000 days: pregnancy, infancy and early childhood. During pregnancy, a mother’s health and eating habits have a significant impact on the development and future well-being of a child. If a mother’s diet is not giving her the nutrients she needs to support a healthy pregnancy and her baby’s development or if it is contributing to excessive weight gain—or both—it can have serious, long-term consequences.

From birth through the first year, breastfeeding provides unparalleled brain-building benefits and gives babies the healthiest start to life. Because of the unsurpassed benefits of breastfeeding, the world’s leading health agencies including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend that babies are fed only breastmilk for their first 6 months, but many mothers lack the support they need to meet this recommendation.

And, finally, beginning at 6 months of age, children should eat a diverse diet of nutrient-rich foods to help fuel their growth and development and shape their taste preferences for healthy foods. Throughout early childhood, parents and other caregivers should also teach healthy eating habits and make sure that water and other non-sugar-sweetened beverages become a consistent part of a child’s diet. Deficiencies in key nutrients, poor eating habits and unhealthy weight gain during the early years of a child’s life can set the stage for numerous developmental and health problems down the road.

From India to Indiana, Kenya to Kentucky, mothers and children everywhere need good nutrition and nurturing care in the first 1,000 days to thrive. Yet too many families in the U.S. and throughout the world do not get the food, healthcare or support they need. Whether your organization works to end the crisis of malnutrition in low- and middle-income countries, or you’re focused on the urgent needs of families especially in the United States, thank you for working with us to create a healthier and more equitable future for all pregnant and birthing people, parents, and their children.