FAO calls for the exploitation of priceless food biodiversity

Potatoes, dairy products, papaya, lettuce, chicken, beans, melon, egg… These are names that are easy to pronounce and are therefore nutritious and healthy foods. And Central America is rich in them, says the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which calls on the region to take advantage of its “priceless food biodiversity.”

Central America, a region with high levels of poverty and significant rates of malnutrition, does not escape the “westernization” of the diet of its inhabitants, like the rest of Latin America. This is closely related to the fact that large parts of the population live in urban centers.

Thus, the World Food Day, which has been celebrated every October 16 since 1979, once again finds Latin America with a nutritional duality: 56 million people are hungry in the region, and it is growing at an alarming rate. who suffer from overweight and obesity due to the consumption of ultra-processed food, warns the FAO.

Nutritional quality of food
Is our food less nutritious today than it was 50 years ago? This is a question that many people ask. For FAO nutrition officer Israel Ríos, the answer is closely related to the “westernization” of our diet.

“There are various factors that affect the nutritional quality of food. Climate change has definitely affected the soil, from where food gets nutrients that are later found in it,” but the biggest problem “lies in consumption patterns,” he explained to EFE.

The diet is “westernized”, that is, they have moved from eating in its natural form to processed, ultra-processed products and sugary drinks, which apparently “have a lower nutritional value” than the former.

“Some fried snacks in bags have a lot of sodium, preservatives, additives, and the nutritional part is less. And how do you understand that? There is a label on the back, and there we can see the list of ingredients. If there is, two or three words that we cannot pronounce, because it’s not food,” Ríos said.

The population consumes this food “very much under the influence of the aggressive marketing strategies of this unhealthy product industry, and this causes our nutritional indicators to be the way we are today,” he explained.

In countries like Panama, for example, “72% of the population is overweight and about 40% is obese,” commented an official from the FAO, whose headquarters for Central America is in the capital of Panama.

Take advantage of Central America’s food biodiversity
Central America, which has significant rates of malnutrition in several countries, is nevertheless a region “that has always had high food biodiversity.”

This subregion has “many products, various fruits, vegetables, legumes, foods that in their natural form have important nutritional value,” Ríos said.

In this context, FAO accompanies the countries of the region in promoting a healthy diet through instruments to support public policies such as food guides, which have among their basic principles the promotion of a varied diet, with fresh foods.

Bright colors = nutritious fruits and vegetables
“Fruits, vegetables and greens are rich in vitamins, minerals and nutrients, especially those with intense colors,” said Ríos.

These bright, colorful pigments represent beta-carotene. Thus, orange and yellow fruits and vegetables are rich in zeaxanthin and lutein, which are associated with good eyesight.

And the red ones, like watermelon and tomatoes, are rich in lycopene, which has anti-cancer properties, especially for the prostate, he said.

FAO celebrates Food Day this year with the motto “Water is life. Water nourishes. Leave no one behind”, and with a call to action to transform agri-food systems and address the challenges of food security, sustainability and climate action.