FAO representative: Healthy diet costs 60% more

The representative in the Dominican Republic of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rodrigo Castanedasaid this Tuesday that, despite the fact that in the Dominican nation the prevalence of undernourishment and the hunger fell from 8.3%, in the 2018-2020 triennium, to 6.3% between the years 2020-2022, improvements are still required in the quality of the diet and equitable access to products.

“It’s hard to find healthy food at low cost and in close proximity. A diet healthy costs 60% more than one that satisfies the essential needs of food and five times more than diets that only satisfy food energy,” he stated.

Castañeda spoke about the “Impact of waste of food products in it environment“, during the eighth edition of the “Sustainable Profits” seminar, organized by the National Network of Business Support for Environmental Protection (Ecored).

He specified that during the year 2022, some 735 million people suffered hunger At a global level and at the opposite extreme, 1,029 million people fell into the category of obese.

“He food system it does not work. The problem of hunger It is a problem of economic access,” he declared.

The engineer indicated that the planet produces three times as much as is consumed, but the levels of waste They are very high. He gave fish as an example, which generate 12% of waste, and fruits, which reach 32%. This waste contributes in a 10% to the creation of greenhouse gases greenhouse.

“Yes (the wastes) if they were a country, this sector would be the third most polluting sector in the world,” he said.

Among some underlying causes of poverty and the inequality that limit food security he cited: pandemics, economic slowdowns and recessions, climate variability, war conflicts and the already mentioned high cost of diets healthy.

Added to the list the climate changewhich affects soil degradation with floods and droughts, and the excessive use of pesticides. “Not all crops need the same amount of pesticides,” she noted.

To reduce the waste of the foodsuggested assuming the traceability: “Knowing where they are produced, who produced them, how they were produced and where they go. This will allow us to identify where the failure is in the chain and be able to easily correct it.”

Obesity in the DR

The specialist described the health indicators in the Dominican Republic as worrying, since the Ministry of Public Health has reported that 70% of the population has obesity either over weight and that means there is a strong increase in public spending. In the case of children, 31% of the students presented over weight.

“Someone has to take care of those people who for that reason obesity They have diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and that translates into public spending. You have to try to correct it with habits, with nutritional adequacy, you have to go to a diet healthier,” he said.

Latin America yel Caribbean they have twice as many obesity than Africa and three times more than Oceania, he said. He valued the decision of the National Institute of Student Welfare as a great step forward (Inabie) of eliminating fruit nectar from school breakfast and appealed to the consumption of fruits and vegetables for their nutritional power, not for their appearance, since, traditionally, stores only offer the best looking ones, discarding those that are visually deformed.

“The ugly foods They are also nutritious“, held.