المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

Comments to the HLPE report on Food systems: p24-p38.

2. The Burden

This is a nice and balanced chapter on statistics, and shows the positive trends in diminishing undernutrition in most parts of the world.  The issue on hidden hunger is raised, where you still lack micronutrients, but have sufficient energy intake.  It gets even worse when this meets the challenge of overconsumption of energy-dense food which is close to micronutrient deficient, but often affordable (cheap). I would recommend to even stronger emphasize this as a future challenge.  As we learned from the US conference on Food Security in Ithaca (NY) autumn 2015, plants grow faster, but being less micronutrient dense, the soil gets poorer, and fortification is urgent.  Still, plants do not cover all nutrients needed for human health; e.g. iodine. The only commodities rich in this essential element is milk (milk products), or marine fish. 

Nice and informative figures,

Causes and consequences only mention VA, iron and iodine; but for sure there are more that should be mentioned; e.g. DHA/EPA fatty acids and brain function (the Durham study on learning ability is essential here), B12 and folate; imbalance of these also cause anemia and is important to mention. We still have scarce knowledge on the importance of micronutrients and the implications of imbalances for human health.  It might even turn out that a balance of the micronutrient package, e.g. all the B-vitamins well balanced, to secure a healthy life, e.g. as these are all important co-factors in most metabolic pathways in our body, but here we have too little knowledge.   

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Page 68 in the report; here all is considered; macro- and micronutrients, but very briefly; the micronutrient rich food groups could be even more emphasized. Agri is mentioned to a large degree, while the possibility that lays in the ocean has too little focus; fish is mentioned only briefly; this is an important commodity to combat several of the challenges we face when it comes to micro-nutrients, and fish is important both for undernutrition and is emphasized as important in lowering of NCDs.  Fish also support the poor low-income countries that have small fish eaten whole (e.g. Africa) as an opportunity. In my opinion, this deserves a separate chapter; the opportunities, and challenges when it comes to seafood / fish.

Page 97, lines 15-17 “the ability to connect the right social nudges through information, and convenience will help combat the issues of obesity”. 

This I think is an imbalanced view. The combat obesity will demand good information based on science and idealism; and that there is food available in the marketplace to support people’s nutrient requirements, and where food safety is taken care of.  My point here is; that reflection seems a bit too positive.  If we cannot say exactly what is leading to obesity, how can we combat it by means of social nudges?

Final comment:

Besides the above mentioned; this V0 report is a nice reading, lots of good data, and very good figures, looking forward to the next version.