What Is Hunger

Everyone knows the feeling of being hungry, however while most people in the developed world knows where their next meal is coming from, it’s very different if you’re one of the hundreds of millions who don’t get enough to eat every single day.

Not knowing where the next meal will come from is called ‘food insecurity’. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization defines food insecurity as: A situation that exists when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life.

Being malnourished means you don’t have the strength or energy to do even the simplest tasks. Hunger makes you weak, tired and unable to concentrate. For weeks, even months, its victims must live on significantly less than the recommended 2,100 kc that the average person needs to lead a healthy life.

The body compensates for the lack of energy by slowing down its physical and mental activities. A hungry mind cannot concentrate, a hungry body does not take initiative, a hungry child loses all desire to play and study.

Hunger also weakens the immune system. Deprived of the right nutrition, hungry children are especially vulnerable and become too weak to fight off disease and may die from common infections like measles and diarrhoea. Each year, almost seven million children die before reaching the age of five; malnutrition is a key factor in over a third of these deaths.

However the news is not all bad, because although there has been an increase in the number of hungry in the world, huge strides have been made  since the 1970’s when around 30% were undernourished. That figure has now dropped to 12.9%.