DEPARTMENT OF NUTRITION, FSM & DIETETICS AUGUST

Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022. Despite hopes that the world would emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and food security would begin to improve, world hunger rose to as many as 828 million in 2021 following a sharp upturn in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Severe food insecurity became more prevalent with 11.7 per cent of the global population facing food insecurity at severe levels. The number of people unable to afford a healthy diet around the world also rose by 112 million – to almost 3.1 billion, providing additional evidence that more people were not able to access safe, nutritious, and sufficient food. The report notes that despite progress in some regions, global trends in child undernutrition – including stunting and wasting, deficiencies in essential micronutrients, and overweight and obesity in children, continue to be of great concern. An estimated 45 million children under five years of age suffer from wasting, 149 million have stunted growth and development due to a chronic lack of nutritious food in their diets while 39 million are affected by overweight. Further, maternal anaemia and obesity among adults especially, continue to be alarming. And low and lower-middle income economies bear the greatest burden of stunting, wasting, low birthweight and anaemia cases.