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

What are the current trends

with nutrition?

United Nations Children’s Fund, World Health Organization, The World Bank.

UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates. (2012).

http://www.worldobesity.org/

How should we prioritise

nutrition?

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

The protein-energy percent

ratio

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!

And the need for animal source foods….

Understanding of

bioavailability what is needed

Investments in Nutritional

Sciences

• Short-cuts to nutritional science will

produce short-term solutions

• Nutrition defined is a biological

science

2014

RESULTS

Most important issues reported by key respondents for improving ANH research

Chiwona-Karltun & Sartas 2014

How should we prioritise

nutrition?

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

Cassidy et. al 2013

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.

Acknowledgement Professor Leif Hambraeus, Karolinska Institutet, for sharing his

visuals and decades of experience in the field of Human Nutrition