About us       Projects    News and Events    Up for Discussion                        Browse by
Home > Up for Discussion > Quick Facts
Quick Facts
  • People who eat more diverse diets live longer and have lower rates of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes.
  • These diseases are all on the increase. Cardiovascular disease is the world's number one cause of death, killing 17 million people each year. There were an estimated 1.1 million deaths due to diabetes in 2005, and this number is projected to increase by more than 50 percent in the next 10 years.
  • Globally, we get about 50 percent of our food (calorie and protein) requirements from just three crops - maize, wheat and rice - and 95 percent from less than 30. Yet there are at least 7,000 plant species that could be cultivated for food.
  • An estimated 2 billion people worldwide suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. The most commonly deficient micronutrients are vitamin A, iodine, folate, iron, and zinc. Yet all of these can easily be provided in a balanced diet.
  • One million children under 5 die each year because of micronutrient deficiencies. Nineteen million babies are born with impaired mental capacity because their mothers have micronutrient-deficient diets.
  • Many so-called 'minor' crops are high in vitamin and mineral content. In developing countries, wild plant species are also an important source of vitamins and minerals.
  • The number of obese people has increased dramatically in recent years, in some countries three-fold since 1980. In 2005, worldwide approximately 1.6 billion adults (age 15+) were overweight and at least 400 million adults were obese. At least 20 million children under the age of 5 years were overweight in the same year.
  • A single meal in a fast food restaurant often contains 100 percent of the daily recommended intake of fat, cholesterol, salt and sugar.
  • India's fast food industry is growing by 40 percent per year, with sales in 2005 estimated at over a billion dollars. Meanwhile, a quarter of India's population is undernourished.

Related Information

Fuel for the discussion

Watch a video of Dr Pablo Eyzaguirre, a senior scientist with Bioversity, speaking on the subject of biotechnology, hunger and nutrition.

Dr Eyzaguirre spoke at a seminar at Pioneer, a Dupont company. He is an external member of Dupont's Biotechnology Advisory Panel.

Go to the video


Major events

7th International Food Data Conference: Food Composition and Biodiversity
Sao Paulo, Brazil, October 22-24, 2007

 

Publications

Biodiversity and nutrition: a common path
Journal of Food Composition and Analysis
Volume 19, Issues 6-7 (September-November 2006)

 

Elsewhere on the site

Nutrition

Cross-cutting initiative on biodiverstiy for food, nutrition and health

 

Contact

Pablo Eyzaguirre