The big idea: Food consumption is measured by how much food people take in — usually as the average daily calorie (energy) supply per person, in kcal/day. Nutrition is about the quality of that diet, not just the amount.
Malnutrition means a diet that is wrong in some way. It has two sides: undernutrition (too little food or too few nutrients) and over-nutrition (too much energy or unbalanced food). Both harm health.
To compare places, geographers use indices — the food security index and measures like the undernourishment rate — alongside health indicators such as life expectancy.
Key terms for measuring food and health
- Food consumption — the amount of food eaten, often measured as kcal per person per day.
- Undernutrition — too little food or too few nutrients (hunger, stunting, deficiency diseases).
- Over-nutrition — too much energy or an unbalanced diet (linked to obesity and diet-related disease).
- Malnutrition — the umbrella term covering both undernutrition and over-nutrition.
- Undernourishment rate — the % of a population not getting enough calories to be healthy.
- Food security — when all people can reliably access enough safe, nutritious food.
Malnutrition works both ways: Malnutrition is not only hunger. A person who eats too much processed, high-energy food is also malnourished (over-nutrition).
So richer regions are not automatically 'well nourished' — they swap undernutrition for diet-related diseases like obesity, type-2 diabetes and heart disease.
How this is tested: The stimulus is usually a bar chart or table of food supply and undernourishment by region, sometimes a food-security index score. Read the axis and scale first, then the command term is almost always Outline [2] — name one component of the index or one way a human factor (e.g. rising affluence) changes consumption, and back it with a figure and its units. Marks come from a clear point plus evidence, not from describing the whole chart.
Read the scale first. Which region has the highest bar, and roughly what value?
Interactive diagram
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IB-style questionEstimate[2 marks]
Using the chart, estimate the undernourishment rate in sub-Saharan Africa and identify which region has the lowest rate.
Model answer plan
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The three pillars of the food security index
- Affordability — can people afford to buy food? (Measures income, food prices and the cost of a healthy diet.)
- Availability — is enough food supplied? (Measures production, imports, supply and the risk of shortages.)
- Quality and safety — is the food nutritious and safe? (Measures diet diversity, micronutrients and food standards.)
Naming a component is only half the mark: An Outline on the food security index wants the component AND what it measures. Affordability — whether people can afford to buy food. Name it, then say what it captures.
| Region | Calorie supply (kcal/person/day) | Undernourished (%) | Life expectancy (years) |
|---|---|---|---|
| North America | 3,800 | <2.5 | 79 |
| Western Europe | 3,500 | <2.5 | 81 |
| East Asia | 3,100 | 6 | 77 |
| South Asia | 2,500 | 15 | 70 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 2,300 | 23 | 61 |
Read the pattern, then quote a figure: Higher-income regions have a higher calorie supply, lower undernourishment and higher life expectancy. Describe that pattern in words, then back it with a number from the table (e.g. 2,300 kcal and 23% undernourished in sub-Saharan Africa vs 3,800 kcal and under 2.5% in North America).
IB-style questionOutline[2 marks]
Using the table above, name one main component of the food security index and outline what it measures.
Model answer plan
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What and how much people eat is shaped by physical factors (climate, soil, what land can grow) and, increasingly, by human factors — wealth, technology, trade, migration, culture and advertising. As regions develop, their diets shift, and that shift feeds straight into health.
| Human factor | How it changes the type or amount of food eaten |
|---|---|
| Rising affluence | Higher incomes mean more meat, dairy, sugar and processed food (the 'nutrition transition') |
| Technology | The Green Revolution and irrigation raised yields, so more calories are available |
| Trade & globalisation | Imported and global-brand foods reach new markets, changing local diets |
| Advertising / social media | Marketing pushes high-energy processed foods, raising sugar and fat intake |
| Migration | Migrants bring new cuisines and demand for familiar foods to their new home |
| Culture & religion | Beliefs and customs shape which foods are eaten or avoided (e.g. fasting, dietary laws) |
The Green Revolution in India: From the 1960s, high-yield seeds, fertiliser and irrigation transformed Indian farming. Wheat and rice output soared, lifting average calorie supply and cutting famine risk.
But the gains were uneven — water-rich states like Punjab benefited far more than poorer, drier regions — showing that rising availability does not reach everyone equally.
Rising affluence and the nutrition transition: As incomes rise in fast-growing economies, diets shift from grains toward meat, dairy, sugar and processed food. In several Pacific island states, imported high-energy food has driven some of the world's highest obesity and type-2 diabetes rates — over-nutrition replacing undernutrition.
More affluence can therefore raise life expectancy (fewer deficiencies) and lower it (more diet-related disease).
IB-style questionExplain[3 marks]
Explain how one human factor can change the type or amount of food people consume over time.
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How nutrition links to disease: Malnutrition and disease feed each other. Undernutrition weakens the immune system, so undernourished people — especially children — catch and die from infectious diseases (measles, diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria) far more easily. Over-nutrition drives non-communicable diseases — obesity, type-2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
But nutrition is not the only cause. Poverty, unsafe water, poor sanitation and overcrowding also spread disease — so the link must be weighed, not assumed.
Undernutrition and disease in the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa: During the Sahel famines, drought and conflict caused widespread undernutrition, and weakened children died in large numbers from measles and diarrhoeal disease — a clear malnutrition-to-disease link.
Yet in much of sub-Saharan Africa, malaria spreads through climate and mosquitoes regardless of diet, and the 2010 Haiti cholera outbreak was driven by contaminated water and broken sanitation, not hunger. Disease has many roots, only some of them nutritional.
How this is tested — the [10] essay: Paper 1 Option F ends with a 10-mark markband essay. Two recurring AO3 versions: Examine how differences in food consumption between places affect life expectancy, and "To what extent" disease is tied to malnutrition rather than other causes.
Top band needs: accurate terms, named examples with data, a balanced argument (both under- and over-nutrition; nutritional and non-nutritional causes), and a justified conclusion.
IB-style questionTo what extent[10 marks]
"Disease in poorer regions is mainly caused by malnutrition." To what extent do you agree?
Model answer plan
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