Once I saw an Irish proverb and it said, “Laughter is the brightest where food is the best.” This is so true. Don’t you think? Before you start reading this article, if I ask you to imagine your favorite dish or beverage, doesn’t it make you happy just by imagining it? If you had a chance to eat that dish or drink that beverage now, wouldn’t it make you happier? Doesn’t it give you pleasant thoughts while you are eating your favorite dish? I think everyone is more connected to food, and today, everyone likes to taste different kinds of food or try to cook food in different ways.

Food is an essential part of every living being. However, are we eating healthy foods or drinking healthy beverages? Do we follow a healthy food diet? Or are we able to add enough nutrition and calories needed for a day in our life? These are simple and important questions I’m asking related to your day-to-day life.

Happy World Food Day!

There are major problems we are struggling with, related to food. Hunger, malnutrition, and poverty are directly connected with the world’s food problem at present.

Therefore, in 1979, World Food Day was designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, and since then, people have celebrated it annually on the 16th of October.

The main purpose of celebrating World Food Day is not only to raise awareness about the difficulties of these food problems, but also to encourage people to keep searching for solutions and take actions to create a better nutritious globe in the near future, because our first wealth is health, and our actions are our future.

Live longer with healthy food – what is food?

The definition of food is a substance of plant, animal, or fungal origin consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrates, fat, and other nutrients used in the body of an organism to sustain growth and vital processes and to furnish energy. Hunting and gathering, as well as agriculture, were the two main methods through which humans obtained food in the past.

Delivering healthy food.
Figure 01: Delivering healthy food for a healthy lifestyle.

Let’s take a look at the healthy eating pyramid and the healthy eating palate.

Staying healthy requires a well-balanced diet. It is impossible to get all the nutrients we require from a single food because different foods have varying nutritional values. Also, to maintain better health, we require a specific quantity of nutrients on a daily basis. The food pyramid represents different food groups and the right amount of each food group that we need, in order to continue a healthy and balanced diet.

Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare created the first food pyramid in the 1970s. After four years, it was introduced to the public with the following message: “A good, healthy diet at a reasonable price”. With the passage of time, however, there have been many changes in the structure of the food pyramid.

Healthy Eating Pyramid.
Figure 02: The Healthy Eating Pyramid.

The Food Guide Pyramid was released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture-USDA in 1992 and was replaced on April 19, 2005.

The World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization together published guidelines that can be effectively represented in a table instead of a food pyramid. There are some clear distinctions, mainly in types of fats and carbohydrates, from the USDA food pyramid.

Recently, the USDA replaced the Food Pyramid with a “My Food Plate.” The name changed as they thought the food pyramid to be a too complex symbol for people to understand, despite the valuable information it contains. “My Plate” is a more simple, visual, and research-based icon that gives a direct and clear message about portion size to people.

Healthy Eating Plate.
Figure 03: The Healthy Eating Plate.

Eat Better Not Less – Healthy and balanced diet and its importance.

“Your diet is a bank account. Good food choices are good investments.”

Bethenny Frankel, American author.

In our lifetime, we make many good and sometimes bad investments. When it comes to food, if we think of it also as an investment, most of the time we choose bad, artificial food items, and suffer through our whole life from our unhealthy, nutritious habits. Therefore, it is an intentional bad investment on our part. Today, people follow many different diet plans, and none of them have the correct idea of how to follow a healthy and balanced diet.

Then what is a healthy diet? A healthy diet is a properly balanced diet that includes a combination of different foods such as staples like cereals, vegetables, fruits, legumes, and foods from animal sources, etc. and it will be a protection against many chronic non-communicable diseases. Also, drinking plenty of water is part of the diet and helps flush our systems of waste products and toxins.

A healthy and balanced diet.
Figure 04: A healthy and balanced diet is delicious and beneficial.

If we start to follow a diet, we strictly limit our meals, depriving ourselves of our favorite foods or stress ourselves to change so quickly. But the main goal of having a healthy diet is to improve our health, increase our energy and also enhance our mood. We all require a balance of protein, fat, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals in our meals to sustain a healthy body.

Today’s generation is addicted to artificial fast food. Yet, we cannot suddenly move to healthy foods such as green vegetables, grains, cereals, etc. Therefore, the best way is to make a few small changes at a time in our meals so that we can gradually add additional healthy options and make eating healthy foods a habit over time. Starting by swapping our artificial snacks with colorful fruit salads, making healthy and tasty vegetable smoothies instead of carbonated soft drinks, or choosing foods with healthy fats, good carbs, and filled with fibers are tips for a healthy diet as a beginner.

World hunger and malnutrition – the situation is getting worse day by day.

What is hunger? According to the UN’s Hunger Report, hunger is the term used to define periods when populations are experiencing severe food insecurity—meaning that they go for entire days without eating due to lack of money, lack of access to food, or other resources.

What is malnutrition? World Health Organization defines it as deficiencies, excesses, or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients. “Undernutrition” and “overweight” are the two main types of malnutrition,” and 462 million adults are classified as undernourished or underweight” because many families in developing countries cannot afford enough healthy foods due to low income.

World Hunger Map, 2021.
Figure 05: World Hunger Map 2021 – World Food Program.

The world produces food in sufficient amounts to feed its population, but up to 811 million people go hungry at present. We are all blessed that we get enough food for our meals, whether it is a large or small amount of food. Why am I saying that? There are children and adults who can’t afford even one meal a day, and they are facing malnutrition, death, and abnormal growth in children due to this current situation. Conflict, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic are directly affected by this crisis.

Hunger is strongly linked to poverty due to social, political, demographic, and societal issues. Impacts on food availability and the rise of food insecurity in most countries are two major results due to current climate change. Severe acute malnutrition affects around 14 million children under the age of five worldwide, according to records. If we don’t take this recorded data in a serious way, most of the global population will be in danger. This is the right time to take our actions forward against hunger and government and non-government organizations have started to improve local health systems to treat undernutrition all over the world.

When we hear these two words, hunger, and malnutrition, there is one country that comes to mind. I think you already know what I’m going to tell you. In Africa, people are at major risk due to hunger, and 250 million Africans, representing approximately 20% of the population, are hungry. Also, in the region, at least 12.8 million children suffer from severe malnourishment. It’s a heartbreaking situation, and if we wait until tomorrow to prevent this, there will be nothing to do in the future.

Children in some countries are affected from hunger and malnutrition and rarely get healthy foods.
Figure 06: Children in some countries are affected by hunger and malnutrition and rarely get healthy foods.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Yemen, South Sudan, and northern Nigeria are at the top of the list of countries suffering from hunger in a critical way. If we have to survive for several days on a single meal that was not particularly pleasant and served in a very small serving size neither you nor I will not be able to do that. Yet, at this moment you are reading this article, there are many individuals who have been hungry for a long time, and some of them only have enough food for one meal per day. We must understand the real value of food and healthy life. It’s time to look into the future and take action to create a nutrient-dense community with zero hunger. Eat, drink and be healthy.

Written By:

Ashimi Rathmalgoda,
1st Year Undergraduate,
Faculty of Science,
University of Colombo.

References:
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