Pakistan’s food supply fails national dietary guidelines: FAO

Posted on by Vividh Bharathi

Islamabad, Oct 26 (IANS) The food supply of Pakistan has not been able to achieve its own national dietary guidelines, with shortages of fruits, vegetables, pulses and tubers, while cereals and sugar are in excess of dietary requirements, local media reported on Monday, citing the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) policy brief.

Ensuring equitable access to nutritious, diverse, safe and affordable foods is a policy imperative. However, over 60 per cent of people in Pakistan cannot afford a healthy diet, and this contributes to high rates of malnutrition while diet-related non-communicable diseases are increasing, a report in leading Pakistani daily Dawn mentioned.

Pakistan adopted its food-based dietary guidelines in 2018. However, Pakistan’s efforts to promote healthy eating cannot be achieved until people have access to nutritious food, according to the policy brief, Dawn reported. The report compared Pakistan’s annual food supply with the requirements of people across 10 dietary guideline food groups from 2010-2023, showcasing surpluses and gaps.

The increasing population of Pakistan has further placed pressure, as the population rose from 189.3 million in 2010 to 235.2 million in 2023 and is estimated to increase to about 330 million by 2050. The demands on the agri-food system are expected to further increase due to climate change and other challenges.

According to the report, there is a continuous shortage of several nutritious food groups, especially fruits, vegetables, pulses, roots and tubers, in Pakistan. The vegetable supply gap in Pakistan increased from 10.9 million to 17.8 million tonnes in 2010 to 13 million to 21.6 million tonnes in 2023. During the same period, the fruit supply gap rose from 1.9 million to 10.3 million tonnes to 3.9 million to 14.3 million tonnes. Meanwhile, milk, milk products, meat and eggs showed improvement.

In order to address imbalance, the FAO urged Pakistan to take coordinated fiscal and regulatory measures to realign agricultural production and trade priorities, improve food distribution, reduce post-harvest losses and food waste, and strengthen demand for healthy foods, Dawn reported.

Earlier this month, Pakistan was ranked second-worst in South Asia on the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2026 with a score of 25.5, trailing only Afghanistan, showcasing the country’s deteriorating food insecurity and malnutrition challenges, local media reported.

The report published on the GHI website stated, “With a 2026 Global Hunger Index score of 25.5, Pakistan has a serious level of hunger,” Pakistan’s Geo News reported.

Pakistan was only behind Afghanistan, which had a score of 28.6 on the GHI. Pakistan was placed at the 106th position out of 122 countries globally on the GHI. Pakistan’s score dropped from 36.2 in 2002 to 25.5 in 2026, showing some improvement, as per the report. The GHI score of Pakistan is based on four components: child stunting, undernourishment, child wasting and child mortality.

–IANS

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The study led by researchers at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, suggests that women with ongoing urinary incontinence or overactive bladder, predominantly characterised by a sudden urgency to urinate, could avoid invasive bladder pressure tests.

The invasive urodynamics testing — commonly used in clinical practice for over 40 years — assesses how well the bladder stores and releases urine and can be an uncomfortable test for many.

The tests include filling the bladder with water through a catheter inserted into the bladder. Another catheter is inserted into the vagina or rectum to measure the pressures inside the bladder and abdomen.

On the other hand, Comprehensive Clinical Assessment (CCA) for female incontinence can reveal equally useful information to guide treatment without the need for invasive testing, said the team.

CCA includes a detailed medical questionnaire, a thorough physical examination, a bladder diary, and a “cough test” to assess for stress incontinence.

It may also involve urinalysis and a test to measure the amount of urine left in the bladder after urination.

“Invasive urodynamics tests can be embarrassing and uncomfortable procedures. For many women who are struggling with finding a treatment that works for this type of urinary incontinence, our trial shows they no longer have to go through that experience to achieve an improvement in their symptoms and quality of life,” said lead researcher Professor Mohamed Abdel-Fattah, Director of the Aberdeen Centre for Women’s Health Research, University of Aberdeen.

To understand the effectiveness of both methods, the team recruited 1,099 women with an overactive bladder or urinary incontinence, across 63 UK hospitals.

Participants were randomised to either undergo invasive urodynamics testing plus a CCA, or just a CCA.

The trial found no significant difference between the two forms of assessment, during the 15–24-month follow-up period. About 23.6 per cent of women reported their symptoms were ‘very much’ and ‘much’ improved in the urodynamics group versus 22.7 per cent in the CCA only group.

Women who only underwent CCA also reported earlier improvement in their symptoms. About 13 per cent of women undergoing urodynamics had their diagnosis changed to urodynamic stress incontinence and their treatment plan changed accordingly.

The researchers suggest that clinicians can now be more selective in determining who to refer to invasive urodynamics tests.

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New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS) Even as oral cancer is becoming a major public health issue in India, a new study on Tuesday urged the need for more effective warning signs on tobacco products to help prevent the risk of mouth cancer, which affects the tissues in the mouth and throat.

Despite having a law regulating tobacco production and sale, a national programme for tobacco control and prevention, and a national programme for oral cancer prevention and screening in place, the burden of oral cancer continues to rise in India.

With over 1,35,000 new cases reported annually, India reports the highest burden of oral cancer globally. Although preventable, the country accounts for nearly one-third of the global incidence of the disease, as per GLOBOCAN 2020 and the National Cancer Registry Programme.

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The cross-sectional study, conducted from August 2023 to June 2024, included 116 adult patients with confirmed oral cancer.

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“Healthcare workers need to play a more active role in educating everyone coming in contact with the health system on the harmful effects of tobacco,” Sharma said.

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Until now, doctors had no precise and noninvasive way to see or measure these early changes in humans.

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