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World Food Day
Every year on 16 October the world celebrates World Food Day. This is a day which was declared by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as an awareness day to create solidarity in the struggle against world hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
This year’s theme is “United Against Hunger”, chosen to recognize the efforts made in the fight against world hunger at national, regional and international levels.
The bulk of most recent research, both locally and globally, has demonstrated that malnutrition is characterized by hunger, micronutrient deficiencies as well as an ever- increasing prevalence of obesity , heart disease and diabetes.
“In order to address this spectrum of nutritional disorders, in South Africa, the MRC has been involved in expert panels that have developed and tested user -friendly food-based guidelines, for the lay public, as part of a global initiative by FAO and WHO to make nutritional advice more accessible, particularly to low income groups,”says MRC’s Professor Bourne of the Environment & Health Research Unit (EHRU)
The unit recently collaborated with Nashua Mobile and Food and Trees for Africa to plant 500 trees at homes in Riverlea in response to disturbing levels of food insecurity in the area.
“There have been similar findings of growing food insecurity and reductions in the consumption of fruit and vegetables in other sites of our urban health study (the HEAD study) in Johannesburg so we will be working to extend this initiative,” says the unit’s director Professor Angela Mathee.
According to the MRC’s 2008 report on the 17 risk factors to health, childhood and maternal malnutrition ranked sixth as a significant harm to health. This malnutrition is related to poverty and under-development.
“According to the 2010 Global Hunger Index, Sub-Sahara Africa continues to suffer from alarming levels of hunger. Undernutrition in the first two years of life threatens a child’s life and can jeopardize physical, motor and cognitive development. Poor nutrition among young children can have lifelong consequences for health, productivity, and economic performance. It is therefore of particular importance that we take concerted action to combat hunger, especially among young children,” says Professor Pieter Jooste of the MRC’s Nutritional Intervention Research Unit.
View Guidelines:
- A guide to healthy eating (pdf format, 245kb)
- Enjoy a variety of foods (pdf format, 219kb).
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/food/index.html
http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/world-food-day
OR CONTACT THE MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL:
Professor Angela Mathee angela.mathee@mrc.ac.za
Professor Pieter Jooste pieter.jooste@mrc.ac.za
Professor Lesley Bourne lesley.bourne@mrc.ac.za |
