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NEWS FROM THE WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE
2. Press Release for Worldwatch Paper 150, "Underfed and Overfed: The
Global Epidemic of Malnutrition," by Gary Gardner and Brian Halweil.
CHRONIC HUNGER AND OBESITY EPIDEMIC ERODING GLOBAL PROGRESS
For the first time in human history, the number of overweight people rivals
the number of underweight people, according to a new report from the
Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, DC-based research organization. While
the world's underfed population has declined slightly since 1980 to 1.2
billion, the number of overweight people has surged to 1.2 billion.
Both the overweight and the underweight suffer from malnutrition, a
deficiency or an excess in a person's intake of nutrients and other dietary
elements needed for healthy living. "The hungry and the overweight share
high levels of sickness and disability, shortened life expectancies, and
lower levels of productivity-each of which is a drag on a country's
development," said Gary Gardner, co-author with Brian Halweil of Underfed
and Overfed: The Global Epidemic of Malnutrition. The public health impact
is enormous: more than half of the world's disease burden-measured in
"years of healthy life lost"-is attributable to hunger, overeating, and
widespread vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
"The century with the greatest potential to eliminate malnutrition instead
saw it boosted to record levels," said Gardner.
The number of hungry people remains high in a world of food surpluses. In
the developing world, there are 150 million underweight children, nearly
one in three. And in Africa, both the share and the absolute number of
children who are underweight are on the rise.
Meanwhile, the population of overweight people has expanded rapidly in
recent decades, more than offsetting the health gains from the modest
decline in hunger. In the United States, 55 percent of adults are
overweight by international standards. A whopping 23 percent of American
adults are considered obese. And the trend is spreading to children as
well, with one in five American kids now classified as overweight.
The specific consequences of hunger and being overweight can be very
different. Hunger hits children the hardest, increasing their vulnerability
to infectious diseases or conditions such as diarrhea, which often lead to
permanent mental and physical impairment or even death. Excess weight gain,
on the other hand, takes its greatest toll in adulthood, leading to
chronic, but reversible, conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.
Both developed and developing nations are paying a high price for
malnutrition. The World Bank estimates that hunger cost India between 3 and
9 percentof its GDP in 1996. And obesity cost the United States 12 percent
of the national health care budget in the late 1990s, $118 billion, more
than double the $47 billion attributable to smoking.
Surprisingly, overweight and obesity are advancing rapidly in the
developing world as well. "Often, nations have simply traded hunger for
obesity, and diseases of poverty for diseases of excess," said co-author
Brian Halweil. In Brazil and Colombia, for example, 36 and 41 percent,
respectively, of the population is overweight, levels that match those of
many European countries. Still struggling to eradicate infectious diseases,
many developing nations' health care systems could be crippled by growing
caseloads of chronic illness.
"While the myth persists that hunger results from a scarcity of food,
inequitable distribution of resources and gender discrimination prevent
most of the world's hungry from getting enough to eat," said Halweil. Some
80 percent of the world's hungry children live in countries with food
surpluses, for example. The common thread that runs through nearly all
hunger, in rich and poor nations alike, is poverty.
Since women, as farmers and mothers, are nutritional gatekeepers in many
countries, boosting their status is a big step toward improving national
nutrition. A 1999 analysis of malnutrition in 63 nations found that
improvements in women's education, access to health care, and living
environment were responsible for 75 percent of the reductions in
underweight among children.
And eliminating micronutrient deficiencies can produce rapid results for
just pennies per person per year. The World Health Organization program to
iodize salt in 47 countries between 1994 and 1997 cut the prevalence of
iodine deficiency disorder from 29 percent to 13 percent.
Most countries simply do not make nutritional well-being a priority. But
even countries struggling with difficult economic and political
circumstances can significantly reduce the number of underweight people
with the right policies. Cuba and the Indian state of Kerala, for example,
have been remarkably successful at reducing malnutrition by targeting
nutritionally vulnerable populations such as women and children for special
attention. Both governments provide broad access to health care, an
important partner to food intake in ensuring good nutrition.
In nations where overeating is a problem, policymakers need a different set
of tools. All too often, technofixes like liposuction or olestra attract
more attention than the behavioral patterns like poor eating habits and
sedentary lifestyles that underlie obesity. Liposuction is now the leading
form of cosmetic surgery in the United States, for example, at 400,000
operations per year. While billions are spent on gimmicky diets and food
advertising, far too little money is spent on nutrition education.
"In the absence of a strong government educational effort on nutrition
issues-in schools, on product labels, and through the regulation of food
advertising-most people get their nutrition cues from food companies," said
Gardner. "In the modern food environment, we're like children in a candy
shop, every day of our lives."
Improving nutritional literacy can begin in schools. In Singapore, the
Trim and Fit Scheme has reduced obesity among children by 33 to 50 percent,
depending on the age group, through changes in school catering and
increased nutrition and physical education for teachers and
children. School cafeterias in Berkeley, California, have gone organic,
with some of the produce for meals coming from student-tended gardens on
campus.
A serious effort to end overeating could be modeled on the successful
campaign to discourage smoking, including the use of "high fat" or "high
sodium" warning labels and taxes to deter purchases. Consumption of
nutrient-poor foods could be further reduced using a tax on food based on
the nutrient value per calorie, as advocated by Yale psychologist Kelly
Brownell. Fatty and sugary foods low in nutrients and high in calories
would be taxed the most, while fruits and vegetables might escape taxation
entirely.
-END-
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