World Food Day offers an opportunity to rethink our everyday choices

By: Trademagazin Date: 2024. 10. 16. 11:51

Food is the most basic human need right after air and water. The right to food is also recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as access to varied, nutritious, affordable and safe food is necessary for all of us to live an active and healthy life.

Compared to this, after the social, economic and climate turbulence of recent years, hunger is on the rise again worldwide. Currently, approximately 733 million people are hungry in the world and more than 2.8 billion people worldwide cannot afford a healthy diet, which contributes to malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and obesity.

Quantitative or qualitative starvation?

Food problems are also present in countries with the most developed economies, one of the reasons for which is the one-sided diet, typically based on only two or three basic ingredients. This form of unbalanced nutrition ignores the entire nutritional needs of our body, such as adequate intake of vitamins, fibers or proteins.

One of the important goals of this year’s World Food Day is to draw attention to it: supplementing these nutrients, creating and following a healthier diet is good for us and our planet. We can make our meals more balanced and enjoyable with common, local, seasonal and mainly affordable ingredients and varied preparation methods. This provided the central theme of the joint event of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Hungarian Food Bank Association and the Ministry of Agriculture.