IB Geography HL — Measuring food and health

Key Idea: Topic 12.1 is about how we measure food and health, and how both vary from place to place. It pulls together two ideas: 12.1.1 — measuring food and nutrition: food consumption (kcal/person/day) and diet quality; malnutrition covering both undernutrition and over-nutrition; and the indices that compare places — the food security index (affordability, availability, quality & safety) and the undernourishment rate. 12.1.2 — measuring health and disease: the health indicators (life expectancy, infant + maternal mortality, morbidity) that gauge a population's health, and how the pattern of disease shifts from infectious diseases of poverty towards chronic diseases of affluence as countries develop (the epidemiological transition). This is Option F (The geography of food and health), examined on Paper 1 — SL answers two options, HL three (same questions). Each option = a short data-response off a figure (a table, bar chart or choropleth map), a structured Outline/Suggest/Explain, and a [10] Examine extended answer.

🍽️ 12.1.1 — Measuring food and nutrition

Food consumption is measured by how much food people take in — usually the average daily calorie supply per person (kcal/day). Nutrition is about the quality of that diet, not just the amount. Malnutrition is the umbrella term: it covers undernutrition (too little food or too few nutrients) and over-nutrition (too much energy or an unbalanced diet) — so richer regions are not automatically well nourished. The skill examiners test is reading a table or bar chart of food supply and undernourishment by region (or a food-security score), then outlining a component or a human factor and backing it with a figure and its units.

Tip: An Outline of the food security index wants the component AND what it measures. Affordability — whether people can afford to buy enough food. Name it, then say what it captures. On a table or bar chart, describe the pattern in words, then quote a figure with its unit (e.g. 2,300 kcal and 23% undernourished in sub-Saharan Africa vs 3,800 kcal and under 2.5% in North America).

🩺 12.1.2 — Measuring health and disease patterns

Health indicators are the numbers that measure how healthy a population is and let us compare places: life expectancy, infant and maternal mortality, morbidity (the amount of disease) and calorie intake. They vary with development — poorer places carry a heavier burden of infectious diseases of poverty (malaria, cholera, TB), while richer places see rising chronic diseases of affluence (obesity, type-2 diabetes, heart disease). The classic stimulus is a choropleth world map of a health indicator. The data-response asks you to identify the region in the highest band, read off a band for one place, or estimate a percentage change — always reading the key first, never inventing an exact figure.

Whether you Suggest or Explain, don't just name a reason — show how it changes health. Rising wealth → energy-dense diet → excess calories → obesity → type-2 diabetes. A figure or named example (US obesity, the Middle East diabetes surge) lifts the answer into the top band. Population growth alone is not a credited reason for rising disease.

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