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Depth of hunger: how hungry are the hungry? Meaningful action to end hunger requires knowledge of not just the number of hungry people around the world but also the depth of their hunger. Knowing the number of kilocalories missing from the diets of undernourished people helps round out the picture of food deprivation in a country. Where the undernourished lack 400 kilocalories a day, the situation is more dire than in a country where the average shortage is 100 kilocalories. The greater the deficit, the greater the susceptibility to nutrition-related health risks. The depth of hunger, or food deficit, is measured by comparing the average amount of dietary energy that undernourished people get from the foods they eat with the minimum amount of dietary energy they need to maintain body weight and undertake light activity. The diets of most of the 800 million chronically hungry people lack 100-400 kilocalories per day.
Where the average kilocalorie deficit is very high, many people's diets are deficient in everything, including the starchy staple foods (carbohydrate-rich maize, potatoes, rice, wheat and cassava) that provide energy. But where the deficit is more moderate, people generally get enough of the staple foods. What they often lack is a variety of other foods that make up a nutrititious diet: legumes, meat, fish, oils, dairy products, vegetables and fruit that provide protein, fat and micronutrients as well as energy. Rounding out their diets is crucial to food security. Lack of cash income is one of the most important factors hindering both urban and rural people from obtaining the diverse foods needed for an adequate diet. Even when poor rural families are helped to produce a greater variety of foods on their household plots, they will often sell these items rather than consume them because of their high market value. Thus, their food security improves only when overall household income rises to a level that permits them to afford the other foods they need.
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