Fighting malnutrition, 50 countries say they’ll make good nutrition a priority, By David Nabarro, June 25, 2014, Christian Science Monitor: “In 2008, an international medical journal (the Lancet) released a series of research papers on maternal and child nutrition. At that time the journal’s editor wrote, ‘nutrition is a desperately neglected aspect of maternal, newborn, and child health. The reasons are understandable, but not justifiable and the international nutrition system is broken. Leadership is absent, resources are too few, capacity is fragile, and emergency response systems are fragmentary. New governance arrangements are urgently needed.’ At that time the importance of nutrition as a key driver of development was not widely understood, or acknowledged; it was lost amongst the many competing issues straining to attract political attention and financial support. An article about the importance of malnutrition in human and economic development would have started by making the case . . .”
Tag: Hunger
Food Insecurity in the US
Hunger is a ‘silent crisis’ in the USA, By Marisol Bello, April 16, 2014, USA Today: “Tianna Gaines Turner can’t remember the last time she went to bed without worrying about how she was going to feed her three children. She can’t remember the last time she woke up and wasn’t worried about how she and her husband would make enough in their part-time jobs to buy groceries and pay utilities on their apartment in a working-class section of Philadelphia. And she can’t remember the last time she felt confident she and her husband wouldn’t have to skip meals so their children could eat…”
SNAP Cuts and Health Risks
- Study ties diabetic crises to dip in food budgets, By Sabrina Tavernise, January 6, 2014, New York Times: “Poor people with diabetes are significantly more likely to go to the hospital for dangerously low blood sugar at the end of the month when food budgets are tight than at the beginning of the month, a new study has found. Researchers found no increase in such hospitalizations among higher-income people for the condition known as hypoglycemia, suggesting that poverty and exhausted food budgets may be a reason for the increased health risk…”
- Doctors say cutting food stamps could backfire, By Lauran Neergaard (AP), January 9, 2014, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Doctors are warning that if Congress cuts food stamps, the federal government could be socked with bigger health bills. Maybe not immediately, they say, but over time if the poor wind up in doctors’ offices or hospitals as a result. Among the health risks of hunger are spiked rates of diabetes and developmental problems for young children down the road. The doctors’ lobbying effort comes as Congress is working on a compromise farm bill that’s certain to include food stamp cuts. Republicans want heftier reductions than do Democrats in yet another partisan battle over the government’s role in helping poor Americans…”