Got calories?

Back in early December of 2020 I read an article published in the British medical journal - Malnutrition: the silent pandemic. As someone who is incredibly curious about the food we eat and its long term effects on our health, this article really made me think! Like, really made me think. I mean, we're all living through this really weird time right?. We've got a virus floating about around us, we wash our hand 18 times a day, wear a mask, we watch the news (next slide please *said Chris Witty) to stay updated on 'new variants', and some of us have even bought books on epidemiology. We've all been so proactive and diligent against protecting ourselves and others. Go us!

A viral pandemic Vs a silent pandemic.

The silent pandemic in question is malnutrition. What is malnutrition? Malnutrition basically means 'poor nutrition'. Today, nearly one in three people in the world suffers from at least one form of malnutrition, including obesity, under-nutrition and/or vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

In the western world we eat foods that are high in calories but deficient in essential nutrients. In fact low quality food is everywhere. This increase in cheap, easily accessible processed foods is a major contributor to changing dietary habits. An average household in the UK now spends more than half of its total food and drink budget on highly processed foods that are often high in energy, fat, salt and/or sugar (Food Foundation, 2016).

More than 28 million adults and children in the UK are overweight or obese, which is fuelling a diet-related health crisis with spiralling rates of non communicable diseases, including type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (OECD, 2017). Treating obesity and its consequences in England alone currently costs the NHS £16 billion every year, the majority of which is spent on type 2 diabetes (Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England quoted in Hughes, 2016). This is more than the £13.6 billion per year spent on the fire and police services combined.

But how can someone be overweight and malnourished?

Because malnourishment isn't a lack of calories, it's a lack nutrients. Vitamins and minerals are required in the body for a wide range of functions including maintenance of healthy red blood cells, connective tissue and the nervous system, protection of cells from antioxidants, absorption and utilisation of nutrients, protein processing and DNA synthesis. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies can occur in both people who are overweight and in people who don’t have enough to eat.

Poor diet is a big problem and it's fuelling a silent pandemic.

Unlike with a viral pandemic, we cant see the immediate effects of poor food choices on our health, and because we can't see them it's easy to ignore the problem. It's easy to ignore the fact that nearly half of the global population is affected by malnutrition, with obesity now killing more people than undernutrition. It's easy for us to ignore that fact that poor diets are responsible for more deaths around the world than any other risk factor!

We have a 'silent' pandemic of chronic diseases and conditions which are largely brought on by poor nutrition and lifestyles. As a society we now normalise conditions such as high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, which can then lead to heart attacks and strokes. We believe these are synonymous with aging. They're not! Yes, we might be living longer but we're not living healthier for longer. Our food is slowly killing us.