Post No. 4. What is the difference between calorie security and nutrition security?

In 1964 when there were 3.27 billion people on the planet, the average per capita food consumption in kcal/person/day was 2194 or ..... 7.17 trillion calories a day. In 2011, this had increased to 2870 k/cal/person/day for the now 7 billion people on the planet [1]. That is ..... 20.5 trillion calories a day. The WHO has great interactive graph that shows this trend and breaks it down by region so do check it out. [2]   

What are the calorie requirement predictions for 2030? If the average food intake rises to 3000 kcal/person/day and the UN project there will be 8.55 billion people on the planet this will be a planetary requirement of 25.7 trillion calories a day. That is a staggering requirement and global footprint. 

We can survive on calories, but for a healthy, nutritious diets that promote well-being we need nutritional security for every person on the planet. 

In 1996 the World Food Summit [3] defined food security as a state or condition: “when all people, at all times, have physical, economic and social access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” 

Two aspects to nutrition security (or malnutrition) are often discussed (a) undernutrition, and inadequate nutrition that leads to wasting and stunting in children or inadequate consumption of micronutrients such as vitamins or minerals ; and (b) overnutrition that leads to excess consumption of energy dense and nutrient poor foods that over time can lead to excess weight and obesity and the issues of non-communicable disease such as type 2 diabetes, heart attacks or strokes. 

The economic, environmental and social challenges to deliver calorie security and then nutritional security to the human population are immense and will take traditional, novel and disruptive thinking to achieve and action at a local, regional, and national scale by everyone in the global community.   

1. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/what-the-world-eats/ 
2. https://gateway.euro.who.int/en/indicators/hfa_440-3200-average-number-of-calories-available-per-person-per-day-kcal/visualizations/#id=19456 
3. FAO. 1996. Rome Declaration on World Food Security and World Food Summit Plan of Action. World Food Summit 13-17 November 1996. Rome.