AMMAN — Over thirty percent of Jordanians cannot afford a
healthy diet, according to a new report from the Food and Agriculture
Organization (
FAO) of the United Nations. At an even higher rate, half of the
populations of all Arab states cannot afford a healthy diet.
اضافة اعلان
The
annual report provides ‘an update on regional
progress’ towards two elements of the UN’s second Sustainable Development Goal:
target 2.1, ‘ending hunger and achieving food security’, and target 2.2,
‘ending all forms of malnutrition.’ FAO, the Economic and Social Commission for
Western Asia (
ESCWA), the International Fund for Agricultural Development
(IFAD), the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (
UNICEF),
the World Food Program (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO)
contributed to the report.
According to data collected before the
COVID-19 pandemic, 30.5 percent of people in Jordan cannot afford a healthy
diet.
The report used the definition from the State of Food Security and
Nutrition in the World 2020, which states that a healthy diet ‘provides
adequate calories and nutrients but also a more diverse intake of foods from
several different food groups.’
The study pointed out that countries
experiencing conflict face the greatest challenges with food access and food
security - and Jordan is affected by these conflicts as a host of many
refugees. The report found that ‘“the food security status of Syrian refugees
in Lebanon and Jordan is low”, noting that in 2020, 5 million Syrians,
including those in Jordan, were dependent on aid from the World Food Program.
Alternately, only 0.9 percent of people in
Jordan cannot afford a nutrient adequate diet and zero percent cannot afford an
energy sufficient diet. A nutrient adequate diet ‘provides adequate calories
but also relevant nutrient intake values of 23 macro and micronutrients through
a balanced mix of carbohydrates, protein, fat, essential vitamins and minerals’
while an energy sufficient diet ‘provides adequate calories for energy balance
(2,329 kcal, required for a reference group represented by an adult woman of
reproductive age) for work each day through consumption of only the basic
starchy staple for a given country.’
The report found that the undernourished
population in the region has increased annually since 2015. Additionally, the
Arab region ranks second in the world for obesity, with over a quarter (27
percent) of the population meeting the definition of obese.
“Economy is the main challenge,” for nutrition
in Jordan, according to clinical nutritionist Marah Al-Najar. “With the
economic crisis, people's lack of money is making them tight on food budgets;
the cheapest the better,” she explained in an interview with Jordan News. She said that in dire
economic straits, food selection “isn't about the best quality and nutrient
dense options (but) rather what's cheaper and affordable for the whole family
members.”
She said that for many Jordanians, facing an
unemployment crisis and the ongoing pandemic, it is “not a priority for
Jordanians to eat healthy as much as to eat.”
“People rather choose comfy, filling foods
than going for healthier meal options,” Najar said.
Though the study gathered data before the
pandemic began, Najar noted that the crisis likely had an immediate impact on
Jordanians’ nutrition, as “a lot of people have lost their jobs or their
salaries have been cut down.” She added that even when they do have extra
funds, many Jordanians have other needs to attend to before they consider
visiting a dietician for help.
According to the report, in Jordan an energy
sufficient diet - i.e. meeting all of your calorie needs with only rice - costs
each person $0.64 per day, while a nutrient adequate diet costs $1.66 and a
healthy diet costs JD4.19.
The nutritionist also pointed out that not all
Jordanians have a clear definition of what ‘healthy’ even means, which makes it
challenging to follow a healthy diet. “It's easy to fraud and to claim anything
that is healthy without actually being healthy,” she said.
The limited choices forced on Jordanians by
poverty and unemployment may have a lasting impact years into the future.
“Poor
eating habits may result in chronic diseases,” said Najar. They can “increase
risk of developing diabetes, or malnutrition, and in some cases cancer.”
The report also found that 8.5 percent of
Jordanians are undernourished. The rate of undernourishment rose from 6.7
percent in 2007 to a high of 9 percent from 2013-2016, dropping since then.
As of 2016, over a third (34.7 percent) of
women between the ages of 15 and 49 suffered from anemia and 35.5 percent of
both men and women fit the criteria for adult obesity.
Despite the challenges facing food security in
the Kingdom, the report also commended some of Jordan’s measures, such as
reducing food waste by replacing the bread subsidy program with electronic
transfers and setting up an online license system to promote exports of surplus
local food.
Notably,
several experts have recently predicted that
Jordan will soon face price hikes in consumer goods mirroring a rise in global
prices. These hikes could exacerbate the difficulty of eating a healthy and
nutritious diet in Jordan.
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