The Country Where the Best Food is Eaten in the World

We have just passed the first 20 days of 2014 and we continue with lists, rankings and top10. Oxfam recently released the results of its first assessment of the best and worst places to eat. Dear foodies, we are not talking about restaurants with stars, suns or constellations, or chefs of the year, or renowned, or even blogs with impossible recipes. We are talking plain and simple about access to safe, healthy and affordable food.

The “Good Enough to Eat” index, something like “good enough to eat”, gives an image of how well people around the world eat. Countries that could be near the top of the list for having enough food for the entire population, plummet due to factors such as levels of obesity and diabetes. This index is based on the answer to the following four questions:

Does the population have enough to eat? - Measured by the levels of malnutrition and low weight in children.

Can the population afford to eat? - Measured by food prices compared to other goods and services, as well as the volatility of their prices.

Is the food of good quality? - Measured by diet diversity and access to clean and safe water.

What is the scope of the diet on the health of the population? - Measured by the incidence of diabetes and obesity.

The data has been obtained from reports from sources such as the WHO, has been processed to standardize them and has been compared between them.

The results

The Dutch preside over the fine dining table, followed by French and Swiss. At the tail end is the Republic of Chad, where food is of little nutritional value, expensive and prepared in questionable hygienic conditions.

The countries that are in the top 12 of the list stand out for their lack of malnutrition and malnutrition, as well as having access to safe water. In the case of the winner, Holland, reaches number one thanks to relatively low food prices, as well as few cases of diabetes (remember that always compared to the rest of the countries), and better food diversity than its rivals in Europe. . However, the country of "mechanical orange" scores very poorly in obesity. In fact, the vast majority of the top 12 score fatal for this indicator.

On the opposite side of the list, Ethiopia and Angola closely follow the Republic of Chad. Abusive prices, low food quality both nutritionally and safely and limited access to sanitary conditions penalize these countries. Not to mention malnutrition: one in three children is underweight. Such high prices mean that the population cannot maintain diets that are sufficient in quantity and quality to stay healthy. In addition, the diet in these countries is based on cereals with low nutritional content, roots and tubers, which gives the dish little variety.

As in Spain ... in many places

The report speaks of the top 12 as those countries that enter the top 10%. That is to say and said in another clearer way: the first 12 countries are part of the 10% of the list with the best score. In addition to those mentioned above, our Portuguese and Italian neighbors have the privilege of being at the table of the best. And what about the Spanish diet? Is it true that since you eat in Spain you don't eat anywhere? The answer is disappointing since we are not in the top12. But by the hairs, because we are in position number 13, sharing the bill with Iceland, Greece, Cyprus, Finland, Norway and the United Kingdom. Each of the countries scored differently on the four indicators of the index “good enough to eat”, but the end result is that we all tied for 13th place.

And what happens to us in Spain to avoid being among the best?

Well, it mainly penalizes the rates of obesity and diabetes, as well as that the population can afford to eat (remember that this index was measured by comparing food prices with other consumer goods). Recall that Spain has half of the adult population above a healthy weight and we are at the top of Europe's overweight and obesity lists.

You have to move

And we are not talking about physical activity in this case. Oxfam calls for action to the entire world population so that together, we improve and fix a broken food system. In short, what is being asked is:

Invest in infrastructure and small-scale agriculture in developing countries, so as to increase crop production and give farmers access to markets.

Take measures against climate change by reducing global CO2 emissions to prevent even worse impacts on food production, invest in agricultural productions that are more resistant to climate change and favor good practices to adopt technologies that respond to this change.

Discard the use of biofuels that divert the food destined for the population to the fuel tanks.

Improve the rights of the most vulnerable communities over their lands

Action by governments and the food industry to curb the increase in overweight and obesity, both in developed and emerging countries.

Better regulation of food speculation to prevent such high prices and volatility.