Giving Compass' Take:

• Data from the United Nations shows that the population is growing heavier and hungrier than it was five years ago, and political leaders finally realize that there must be a shift toward nutrition-focused solutions. 

• Emmy Simmons, a senior adviser at the Washington DC-based think-tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, says that funding for nutritionists focused on healthy foods and accessibility is non-existent. Can donors make an impact by starting with capital for more research on equitable nutrition planning?

• Read more about the nutrition paradox. 

Technology has made farming easier but government policy and climate change have slashed the foods produced by villagers which they fear is killing them when combined with the explosion in fast-food. “Now we don’t know where the oils we eat come from because we buy what’s quick and cheap and easy,” said Myint Soe, 59.

What is happening in Thar Yar Su is just a microcosm of one of the world’s biggest problems - deadly diets, which have now overtaken smoking as the world’s biggest killer.

Data shows one in five deaths worldwide in 2017 was linked to unhealthy diets in both poor and rich countries as burgers and soda replaced traditional diets and a warming planet impacted the variety of crops grown.

The Global Burden of Disease study by the US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said unhealthy eating is killing 11 million people a year, up from 8 million in 1990—while smoking kills about 8 million people a year.

Meanwhile billions of people lack the nutrients their bodies need.

United Nations’ figures show the global population is both hungrier and heavier than it was five years ago, and food and policy experts fear the escalating food crisis could fuel conflicts and migration without action to reverse this trend.

Jessica Fanzo, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and co-chair of the annual Global Nutrition Report—described as the world’s most comprehensive report on nutrition—said diets were “the number one cause of disease, disability and death”.

After decades of concentrating on how to feed an expanding global population, political leaders are realising that nutrition—not hunger—is the new frontier, and the focus is shifting from providing enough food to food that is good.

Read the full article about transforming nutrition and food habits by Thomson Reuters Foundation at Eco-Business.