Discussion panel: Healthy diets for better nutrition

Live broadcast

Latin America and the Caribbean situation

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) faces significant challenges to eradicate hunger and malnutrition in all its forms. The trend of increasing prevalence of hunger and food insecurity evidenced since 2014 came to a halt. Between 2021 and 2022, the prevalence of hunger decreased in the region from 7.0% to 6.5%, and the prevalence of food insecurity also decreased from 40.3% to 37.5%, being higher than the global prevalence and pre-pandemic levels.

In 2022, there was an overweight prevalence of 8.6% in children under 5 years of age, and an adult obesity rate of 24.2%. Both figures show an upward trend, above world averages. These data are worrying and affect people of all income levels, both in rural and urban areas.

On the other hand, in 2019, LAC recorded a prevalence of anemia in women between 15 and 49 years of age of 17.2% below the global prevalence (29.9%). However, the Caribbean subregion has a higher prevalence of anemia than the average for the region (29.2%). As for exclusive breastfeeding during the first 6 months of life, in 2021, the region presented prevalences below the global estimate (42.6% vs. 47.7%).

The rising cost of a healthy diets further hinders the achievement of SDG targets 2, 3, 5, 10 and 12 by hindering the creation of healthy food environments and the adoption of healthy eating patterns, especially among the most vulnerable population. Globally, the cost of a healthy diet has been increasing since 2019. Between 2020 and 2021, the cost of a healthy diet increased by 4.3% globally and a larger increase was observed in the Latin America and Caribbean region (5.3%), almost double that recorded between 2019 and 2020. South America was the subregion with the highest increase in cost (6.4%), followed by the Caribbean (5%) and finally Mesoamerica. LAC has the highest cost of a healthy diet (4.08 PPP dollars per person per day) compared to the rest of the world (3.66 PPP dollars per person per day).

Unhealthy food environments and dietary patterns, along with the high cost of healthy diets increase food insecurity, overweight and obesity. These can be influenced by a number of factors associated with agrifood systems, ranging from food production to food consumption, such as the economic slowdown, food inflation, persistent structural inequalities, high levels of poverty, the climate crisis and the existence of food deserts and swamps in different countries of the region.

Healty Diets

Approximately 23% of the region's population (133.4 million people) do not have year-round access to safe, affordable and healthy diets needed to promote health and wellbeing, affecting the food security and nutrition of the most vulnerable, including children and women.1 Consequently, malnutrition in all its forms is a problem of global proportions, and no country is free from its effects.

To address malnutrition, diets must be improved. However, the task is arduous, as the factors driving dietary change are numerous and include urbanization, globalization of agricultural markets and trade, income, supermarket penetration, and mass marketing of food. Therefore, improving diets requires consideration of the entire agrifood system, which encompasses all actors (and institutions) involved in the production, aggregation, processing and packaging, distribution, marketing, consumption and disposal of food.

The objectives of healthy diets are to achieve optimal growth and development of all people and to promote physical, mental and social functioning and well-being at all stages of life for present and future generations; to contribute to the prevention of all forms of malnutrition (i.e., undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity); and to promote healthy diets.

However, defining what we mean by healthy diets, what are the real consequences for Member States of increasing their consumption and how to do it are important challenges that require more evidence and sharing of experiences among the different actors of agrifood systems.

In this regional context, this seminar is a platform to enrich the dialogue and generate evidence, thanks to the participation of panelists representing various sectors, such as the public, civil society and the private sector.

Objective

Share experiences in healthy diets and nutrition and policies to address food insecurity and malnutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Meeting

This event is part of the technical visit of the director of the Food and Nutrition Division (ESN), Lynnette Neufeld, to the FAO regional office for Latin America and the Caribbean. The modality of the event will be hybrid with the participation of ministries, academia, civil society and the private sector. The discussion will be divided into two parts, each with a guiding question. Panelists will have 5 minutes in each part.

Part I: Conceptual analysis of healthy diets

• Question: What are the policies to improve access to and consumption of healthy diets in our region?
• Question: What technological innovations can we implement to increase access to and consumption of healthy diets?
• Question: What technological innovations can we implement to increase access to and consumption of healthy diets?