Obesity Verses Undernourishment
How is it that we live in a world where 1 in 7 people are hungry every
day and 1 in 7 people are obese? The obese and the undernourished and
malnourished have one thing in common: their bodies are under severe stress
because of the food they consume. In 2008 it
was recorded that more than 1.4 billion adults, 20 and older, were overweight.
It was recorded that more than 40 million children under the age of five were
overweight in 2010. Yet as the world continues to struggle with its food
distribution ratio, 925
million people were also hungry in 2010.
Below is a graph that recorded the percentage of people undernourished in 2009 by regions in the world.
Undernourishment: ‘not nourished
with sufficient or proper food to maintain or promote health or normal
growth...not given essential elements for proper development’
Obesity: ‘the condition of being very fat or overweight; corpulence...’ 
I struggle to understand these shocking facts. But I am here to present the facts even they do some across as shocking. The world continues to tackle these issues with some improvements in place. Yet it is still unclear as to how we are going to tackle such problems.
How do we change issue like this?
You may be thinking well there must not be enough food to go around. But
surely the information earlier has changed this view. There is actually enough wheat, rice and other grains produced
to provide every human being with 3,500 calories a day, not even taking into
account other foods such as fruit and vegetables, nuts, meats, and fish. The
average person should consume approximately 2000 to 2500 calories a day. This
is converted to approximately 8700 kilojoules daily. The real problem with food
distribution is that many people who are living in extreme poverty are too poor
to buy readily available food.
The Issue of
Malnutrition means Supplementary Food Supply
Currently a brutal drought has overcome the Horn of Africa
which includes countries such as Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and
Ethiopia. World Vision has reported on this current crisis by saying ‘Crop
damage and associated yield reduction of the main season in 2010 as well as
poor harvest during the small production season this year, which is very
important in bridging the food gap between the two harvest seasons, adversely
affected food availability in the district and left 18,488 people in need of
food aid. Out of the total affected people in the area, 31% are under five
children and pregnant and lactating mothers.’
This
drought has caused an
estimated 25 percent of Somalia’s population to be displaced. Refugees are
fleeing to neighbouring countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia in urgent need of
health and nutrition services. Other areas like Western Africa are becoming
vulnerable to huge food shortages due to droughts, soaring food prices, locusts
and political conflict. A young girl named Rashida lives off eating locusts in
her country of Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world. These locusts
have destroyed her family’s millet crop and have now become her only source of
food.
But why is good
nutrition so important for young bodies? Good nutrition is an important aspect
of any person’s life. It affects your skin and bones, your immune system, your
energy levels, brain development and growth. Watch an American Video about the benefits of
good nutrition on a child’s development for more information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3abZswA5XY&feature=endscreen
Malnourished
children in particular struggle with living with high standards of these
factors.
But there is hope for these people as World
Vision has partnered with an Ethiopia Shashmene Area Development Programme and
is providing dry rations to many malnourished children and mothers on arrival
to the camps. This food includes supplementary food such as Famix and vegetable
oil for cooking and bread making. Famix is a vitamin enriched corn and soy meal
also used for cooking.
Watch this World Vision video for some more
information on supplementary food:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RebR3LrQxik
A 22 year old community health worker named Tadelech was assisting mothers in receiving their own supplementary food for themselves and their families. She commented on how ‘these women and children from Kube Guta village, about five kilometres away, where I work. They don't have enough food at their homes at this time. That is why they are receiving this food aid...Children and women in my village are moderately malnourished. They would have been affected by severe acute malnutrition if World Vision didn't give them this supplementary food. Those who have already taken supplementary food are recovering from malnutrition at all.’
World Vision’s work in Ethiopia has
decreased levels of malnourishments in many villages and is pushing the world
in a hopeful direction for the future.
To
help nations across the world donate to organisations such as World Vision or
Compassion Australia to help rescue families from the shackles of poverty. xx
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