Latin America: avoiding the nutrition transition trap. 10th Dr Abraham Horwitz lecture
Corvalan, C.
SCN News 32: 38-45
2006
Document Number: 274090
Discussions on the different aspects of the double burden of malnutrition (undernutrition and obesity) in Latin America which include nutritional policies and programmes and an achievable common agenda are presented. The paper begins with a review of the conceptual framework necessary to assess the nutrition transition in developing countries using, as an example, the data provided by a supplementation trial in rural Guatemala between 1969 and 1977. The nutritional situation in Latin America is discussed, including the approaches developed there to respond to nutritional deficiencies and nutrition-related chronic diseases. Data from a Chilean national programme providing child care and supplementary food to low-income children under 6 years of age are used to illustrate the changing role of nutrition-assistance programmes in developing countries. The paper concludes with general recommendations on how to tackle malnutrition in all its forms with a unified agenda from the perspective of Latin America.