systemic nutrition security solutions for transformative change by linley chiwona-karltun
TRANSCRIPT
Systemic Nutrition Security
Solutions for
Transformative Change Linley Chiwona-Karltun
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Nutrition is at the heart of human development, which in turn is critical for economic
development. There is a need to catalyse a perception of nutrition as good politics.
Acting to reduce malnutrition-plus and malnutrition-minus is not a question of political
will-- it’s a political choice of optimal use of primary resources in the agricultural sector in a
democratic world
Urban Jonsson,ACC/SCN Symposium, November 1997
What is Nutrition?
• One of the problems for nutritional sciences is the definition of its identity
• The definition has changed between 1974 and 2005
WHO/FAO/IUNS 1974 Definition
The process whereby living organisms utilize food for
maintenance of life, growth, the normal functioning of organs
and tissues, and the production of energy;
The science to study the reaction of the body to intake of
food, the variation in the diet, and to other factors of
pathological or systematic significance.
Definition according to IUNS/WHO 2005 (1)
Nutrition is principally a biological science. This classic
biological dimension of nutrition is and will remain central.
Concerns the interactions of food and nutrition with physiologic,
metabolic and now also genomic systems, and the effect of these
interactions with health and disease.
Deals with the nutritional control and prevention of disease and
the improvement of health in humans, at all levels from individuals to
populations; and also with animals and plants used as human
resources.
Those now concerned with the future of the world at all levels
from local to global, generally agree that their over-riding shared
priority is to protect human, living and physical resources all
together, in order to enable the long-term sustaining of life on earth
and the happiness of humankind:
Nutrition science is one vital means to this end. This implies
expansion and enlargement of the science, and its identification as
a broad integrative discipline, enabled to identify and address the
circumstances, challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.
Definition according to IUNS/WHO 2005 (2)
The biological dimension should therefore be
one of the three dimensions of nutrition science. The
other two are socio-economic and environmental.
Without fulfiling the biological dimension first, we
cannot understand what the need is
When the need is met, then we can talk about
environment
Scientific evidence showing that need is met
essential before talking about extremes
United Nations Children’s Fund, World Health Organization, The World Bank.
UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates. (2012).
Priority of Nutritional Needs
• water
• energy
• protein
• vitamins
– fat-soluble
– water-soluble
• minerals and trace elements – Zinc & selenium
As long as the energy
requirement of an individual
is not met all forms of
nutrients consumed will be
converted to energy first
The Concept of Malnutrition
Malnutrition refers to a negative impact
on nutritional status of an individual.
• Most commonly this is considered as a
synonym to undernutrition:
Malnutrition minus
• It can however also refer to an
unhealthy overnutrition or obesity:
Malnutrition plus
Protein is an essential nutrient,
but.. • World protein resources dominated the global nutrition discussions in
the 1960 and 70’s
• ”The Protein Fiasco” starts an intensive discussion in the middle of
1970’s. Why? (MacLaren 1974)
• UN Protein Advisory Group (PAG) changes name into Protein-Energy
Advisory Group
• The problem of minimal and optimal protein needs is an ever ongoing
debate
The protein-energy % concept Staple food Protein energy % (E%)
Cassava 3
Human milk 5
Potato 10
Cereals (rice, rye, oats, maize, wheat) 7-16 (7, 10, 12, 13, 16)
Milk (bovine 3%fat) 23
Beans and peas 30
Ham 30
Egg 35
Beef 50
Chicken (without skin) 75
Cod 91 © LHs 2013
Most conventional diets have
a protein-energy percent (E%)
around 10-12%
Protein requirement is stable
0,66g/kg body weight per day
WHO/FAO/UNU 2007
Protein most expensive
energy source in the diet
• Least efficient use of primary
resources in global food basket
• Nutrition Education does not stress
this enough!
Investments in Nutritional
Sciences
• Short-cuts to nutritional science will
produce short-term solutions
• Nutrition defined is a biological
science
RESULTS
Most important issues reported by key respondents for improving ANH research
Chiwona-Karltun & Sartas 2014
The balance between food
production and cash crop
production is a question of balance
between food nutrition policy and
public health policy
The Food Crop- Feed Crop – Cash Crop
Trilemma. A conflict between Food Policy and
Nutrition Policy
1. Crops for eating (human food)
2. Crops for husbandry/feeding animals
3. Cash crops
- For luxury foods, e.g. wine, oils, sugar, shrimps
- For technological purposes (biofuel; fibre)
Cassidy et. al 2013
Industrial & Biofuels
http://bcove.me/9u5x0w08
Priority of Nutritional Needs
• water
• energy
• protein
• vitamins
– fat-soluble
– water-soluble
• minerals and trace elements – Zinc & selenium
Ref: www.waterfootprint. org /Stockholm Water Prize 2008
The virtual water content of a product is the sum of the water use in various steps of the production chain.
The real water content of the product is generally negligible if compared to the virtual water content
Coffee
1 cup
Milk
1 glas
Broiler
1 kg
Potato
1 kg
Meat
1 kg Cotton
1 T-shirt
Virtual water
content (l)
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/feeding-9-billion/
A bumper crop of corn piles up outside full silos in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state,
which sends much of its grain to China and South Korea to feed their pigs and
chickens. The demand for more crops to feed livestock is one reason experts say
we’ll need to double crop production by 2050.
Who has the POWER to
transform Nutrition Security? Is it those with
• Money (highest mean income)
• Self sufficiency with food (or net exporter)
• Self-sufficiency with energy (or net exporter)
• Self-sufficiency with water (no famine due to drought)
• Rich primary resources (fertile ground, minerals and energy)
• A healthy population (Human Capital)
Nutrition is at the heart of human development, which in turn is critical for economic
development. There is a need to catalyse a perception of nutrition as good politics.
Acting to reduce malnutrition-plus and malnutrition-minus is not a question of political
will-- it’s a political choice of optimal use of human and primary resources in the agricultural
sector in a democratic world.