Excessive nutrition killing more people than hunger

Almost one billion people around the globe go to bed hungry every night, but it is "excess nutrition" that kills more, according to world's largest humanitarian organisation IFRC.

"At least one billion people are undernourished while a staggering 1.5 billion people are overweight, including an increasing number in low and middle income countries," World Disasters Report-2011 by International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies stated.

"Excess nutrition kills 2.4 million annually, more than hunger," Jagan Chapagain, IFRC Asia Pacific director, said while releasing the report here today.

"The number of obese is increasing in India and China, home to nearly half the world's hungry people, other south east Asian countries. One of the reasons is increasing FDI and over-dependency on ready made or fast food," he said but maintained that there is no country specific data on the issue.

The IFRC argues that National Food Security Bill will not alone be sufficient to wipe out hunger from India and suggested a holistic approach to secure livelihood for poor and sufficient food grains production for achieving the goal.

"Food alone will not be the answer.... government needs to plan for providing livelihood to poor families and produce more food in sustainable manner," Mihoko Tamamura, World Food Programme director (India), said.