Corinna Hawkes: champion of effective food policy

Abstract

As Director of the Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London, UK, Professor Corinna Hawkes leads a team that is focused on finding ways of making existing food policies work better to improve outcomes in areas such as nutrition, health, the environment, people's livelihoods, and the economic aspects of food. “We need to understand the lived experiences of people who are meant to benefit from food policy, as well as better understanding the context for its implementation and evaluation, from a real-life perspective”, explains Hawkes, who is an author of a paper in The Lancet's new Series on the double burden of malnutrition. Dynamics of the double burden of malnutrition and the changing nutrition realityThe double burden of malnutrition (DBM), defined as the simultaneous manifestation of both undernutrition and overweight and obesity, affects most low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). This Series paper describes the dynamics of the DBM in LMICs and how it differs by socioeconomic level. This Series paper shows that the DBM has increased in the poorest LMICs, mainly due to overweight and obesity increases. Indonesia is the largest country with a severe DBM, but many other Asian and sub-Saharan African countries also face this problem. Full-Text PDF The double burden of malnutrition: aetiological pathways and consequences for healthMalnutrition has historically been researched and addressed within two distinct silos, focusing either on undernutrition, food insecurity, and micronutrient deficiencies, or on overweight, obesity, and dietary excess. However, through rapid global nutrition transition, an increasing proportion of individuals are exposed to different forms of malnutrition during the life course and have the double burden of malnutrition (DBM) directly. Long-lasting effects of malnutrition in early life can be attributed to interconnected biological pathways, involving imbalance of the gut microbiome, inflammation, metabolic dysregulation, and impaired insulin signalling. Full-Text PDF Double-duty actions: seizing programme and policy opportunities to address malnutrition in all its formsActions to address different forms of malnutrition are typically managed by separate communities, policies, programmes, governance structures, and funding streams. By contrast, double-duty actions, which aim to simultaneously tackle both undernutrition and problems of overweight, obesity, and diet-related non-communicable diseases (DR-NCDs) have been proposed as a way to effectively address malnutrition in all its forms in a more holisitic way. This Series paper identifies ten double-duty actions that have strong potential to reduce the risk of both undernutrition, obesity, and DR-NCDs. Full-Text PDF Economic effects of the double burden of malnutritionObservations from many countries indicate that multiple forms of malnutrition might coexist in a country, a household, and an individual. In this Series, the double burden of malnutrition (DBM) encompasses undernutrition in the form of stunting, and overweight and obesity. Health effects of the DBM include those associated with both undernutrition, such as impaired childhood development and greater susceptibility to infectious diseases, and overweight, especially in terms of increased risk of added visceral fat and increased risk of non-communicable diseases. Full-Text PDF