the region where it is more expensive to have a healthy diet, according to the FAO

In Latin America, 1 in 5 people cannot access a healthy diet. Between 2015 and 2021, the number of food insecurity increased by 16%, as did the rates of obesity and malnutrition. The figures revealed by the new report The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World presented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, which raises great concern about food in the region.

In the report presented on January 18, he left several important indicators, one of which is the fact that in Latin America 131.3 million people cannot afford adequate food, because has the highest cost of a healthy diet compared to other regions of the worldtaking into account the current situation of global inflation.

The data show how between 2015 and 2021 the Food insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean had an increase of almost 100 million people and the hunger figures in the region they are more worrisome, since they went from 43.3 million to 56.6 million, an “inconsistency” according to the Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative of FAO, Mario Lubetkin.

“It is a paradox considering that the region could produce food for more than 1.3 billion people, which is almost double the population in the region,” he added.

According to information in Colombia, Paraguay and Suriname, the prevalence of undernourishment exceeded 8%. Nevertheless, in Colombia the figure for the increase in obesity in adults was 20%.

The data in minors reflect a serious nutritional problem in Latin America and the Caribbean because, according to the report, there was a significant evolution in chronic malnutrition in children under 5 years of age, and in turn 3.9 million boys and girls of the same age range are overweight in the region. These figures show the clear increase in inequality.

Lubetkin declared in the presentation of the report that The region is going through great challenges due to the increase in the figures of food insecurity and hungerwhich are a consequence of income inequalitiesthe covid-19 pandemic, climate change, war and a serious economic crisis.

The organization warns that the most vulnerable households spend most of their budget on food and if the prices of healthy food continue to increase, this population would be seriously affected, since it would cause a decrease in the quantity and quality of the food purchased. .