Nearly half of the globe’s people are either eating too little or too much leading to stunting and child wasting or to adult obesity. The Global Nutrition Report calculated global food demand generated 35 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in 2018.
The Global Nutrition Report (GNR), a yearly survey and analysis of the latest data on nutrition and related health issues, found that 48 percent of people currently eat either too little or too much -- resulting in them being overweight, obese or underweight.
At current rates, the report finds, the world will fail to meet eight out of nine nutrition targets set by the World Health Organization for 2025, the AFP reported.
These include reducing child wasting (when children are too thin for their height) and child stunting (when they are too short for their age), and adult obesity.
The report estimates nearly 150 million children under five years old are stunted, more than 45 million are wasted and nearly 40 million are overweight.
It also finds more than 40 percent of adults (2.2 billion people) are now overweight or obese.
"Avoidable deaths due to poor diets have grown by 15 percent since 2010 and poor diets are now responsible for a quarter of all adult deaths," Renata Micha, chair of the GNR's Independent Expert Group told AFP.
"Our global findings show that our diets have not improved over the last ten years and are now a major threat to people's health and to the planet."
Foods matter
This year's GNR is the first to look at global diets and how food choices are affecting people and the planet.
It finds people are failing to consume enough health-promoting foods like fruits and vegetables, particularly in lower-income countries.
Higher-income countries had the highest intake of foods with harmful health impacts like red meat, dairy and sugary drinks.
Consumption of harmful foods is on the rise, the report found, with red and processed meat already at almost five times the maximum recommendation of one serving a week.
More holistic targets
The report notes that current global nutrition targets do not mention diet, except for limiting sodium. It recommends new, more holistic targets.
"The science supports a food-based approach or diet-pattern approach in assessing the impacts on health and the environment," Micha said.
35% greenhouse gas emissions in 2018
In line with other estimates, the GNR calculated global food demand generated some 35 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in 2018.
"Animal-source foods have generally higher environmental footprints per product than plant-based foods," the report said.
"Consequently, they were responsible for the majority of food-related greenhouse gas emissions and land use, with particularly large impacts from beef, lamb and dairy."
The report called for urgent funding to improve nutrition across the globe, particularly as Covid-19 has pushed an estimated additional 155 million people into extreme poverty.
The GNR estimates the nutrition spending will need to increase by nearly $4 billion annually until 2030 to meet stunting, wasting, maternal anemia and breastfeeding targets alone.
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