Published on 30 April 2025

Interconnection between food systems and health at a glance

A brief overview of the main interconnections between the thematic fields of food systems and health.

K-HUB > Thematic Interfaces > Food Systems and Health > Interconnections at a glance

  • The interconnections between food systems and health are explicitly stated in SDC key documents. For instance, in its health guidance 2022-2024 SDC defined 5 key determinants of health with one of them being healthy diets.1
  • In the current food system framing as outlined in SDC’s food systems learning journey, human health is a key outcome to be pursued. It is stated that SDC promotes a healthy food system which provides access to a variety of nutrient-rich foods, promotes good health and reduces the risk of malnutrition and diet-related diseases.2
  • The interconnections between food systems and health and vice versa can be summarised along 5 thematical foci:
    • Diets and Nutrition:
      • Unhealthy diets are a common factor in all forms of malnutrition (undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight, and obesity).
      • Improving food systems can lead to better dietary diversity and overall health.
    • Food Safety and Public Health:
      • Contaminated or unsafe food can lead to foodborne diseases and other health risks.
      • Stronger regulations and policies in food production, processing, and distribution help to prevent health hazards.
    • Sustainability and environmental impact:
      • The contamination of natural resources as a result of unsustainable practices in food systems threatens human health.
      • Functional food systems help to protect long-term human health and increase environmental sustainability.
    • Socioeconomic Factors and Health Equity
      • Socioeconomic disparities impact food access, leading to health inequalities.
    • Policy and Governance
      • Public authorities play a crucial role in shaping food systems that support health through food safety regulations, marketing restrictions, taxes/ fiscal measures and participatory governance.
  • SDCs recognition of the food-health nexus is in line with the international discourse on where a process of conversion has been observed. The best example is UNs flagship Report State of Food Security and Nutrition in the world (SOFI),3 which is published annually. Since 2017 the SOFI is published jointly by FAO, UNICEF and WHO and includes a report on the 6 global nutrition targets (stunting, anaemia, low birth weight, child overweight, breastfeeding, wasting)4 with WHO being the custodian of them.
  • At national and sub-national levels, a process of convergence has been observed as well. Nutrition-related multi-sectorial and multi-stakeholder committees have been promoted by international organisations across the globe in the last decades in order to overcome a silo approach where a narrow focus on food production/supply chains dominates the food systems discourse.
  • Another positive development in the last years has been the growing evidence for the interconnection between food systems and health including the health and economic costs of food systems. An important contribution has been made by efforts to calculate the true cost of food and thereby considering the various externalities of food systems. Worth highlighting is also the contribution of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study which has been carried out since 1990.
    • It is estimated that the costs to human life in food systems as a result of the consumption of unhealthy diets are 11 trillion USD (range 3-39).5
    • The GBD results have been consistently showing the high attribution of dietary factors to the burden of disease. According to GBD 2017 11 million deaths and 255 million disability-adjusted life-years could be attributed to dietary factors. In addition, more than half of all diet related deaths and two-thirds of diet-related DALYs were attributable to just three factors: high intake of sodium, low intake of whole grains, and low intake of fruit. Of the 19 risk categories, dietary risks were the leading category for deaths and the second leading category for DALYs.6
    • In addition, economic costs of malnutrition (stunting, low birthweight, anaemia in children, anaemia in adolescents girls and women) are estimated to reach $761 billion.7
    • Lastly, investments to scale up high-impact nutrition interventions could avert 6.2 million deaths in children under age five and 980,000 stillbirths over the next decade. In addition, nutrition programmes would also avert 27 million cases of child stunting and 144 million cases of maternal anaemia.8
  • Unfortunately, the evidence related to health-related food system outcomes is worrying and food systems do not deliver on health outcomes globally. For instance, none of the global nutrition targets will be reached by 2030 with some of them stagnating and obesity among adults even rising across the globe.

K-HUB > Thematic Interfaces > Food Systems and Health > Interconnections at a glance