Soaring Food Prices: The Reason behind Malnutrition

Bangalore: Increasing prices of food have been found to be a direct contributor to malnutrition. As per a survey around 90 percent of stunted children live in 36 countries including India, which are most exposed to food price spikes, as reported by Kounteya Sinha for TNN.

Malnutrition kills 2.3 million children every year. Globally, it has left 170 million children stunted, and has weakened their mental and physical development. As per Save the Children report on ‘A high Price to Pay — The Impact of Rising and Volatile Food Prices on Children's Nutrition and Food Security’, the new norm of high and volatile food prices is having the most impact in countries that already have high levels of malnutrition.

Further, households on an average spend over 30 percent of their incomes on food in the 36 high-burden countries, with the poorest groups regularly spending a greater proportion.

All except three of these countries are not food importers. Families in these countries spend high amount of their income on food (30 -55 percent), with the poorest spending as much as 80 percent.

The report said "Therefore, in both urban and rural areas, poor people who buy (rather than produce) their food tend to switch to cheaper, often less preferred or lower quality staples, which have a lower nutrient content, buy less food, skip meals or reduce their overall food intake, with consequent reductions in their intake of energy, protein and micronutrients, decrease their intake of fruit and vegetables, use different ingredients and cooking methods often sacrificing intake of animal source foods and vegetables and substituting them with non-nutritious spices and artificial flavouring," as reported by TOI.

Also Read: India at Par with Africa on Nutrition, 50 Pct Children Malnourished