The big idea: Food consumption is how much food people take in — usually the average daily calorie (energy) supply per person, in kcal/day. Nutrition is about the quality of that diet, not just the amount.
Malnutrition has two sides
- Malnutrition means a diet that is wrong in some way.
- Undernutrition — too little food or too few nutrients.
- Over-nutrition — too much energy or unbalanced food.
- Both harm health.
How geographers compare places (indices)
- The food security index
- The undernourishment rate
- 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.
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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.
How to answer
- Read the axis and scale first.
- 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.
- 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
Explore the labelled diagram, charts and maps for this topic in full study mode.
Using the chart, estimate the undernourishment rate in sub-Saharan Africa and identify which region has the lowest rate.
Model answer plan
See the answer broken into clear points, with guidance on how each point earns marks.
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.
Average food supply and undernourishment by region (illustrative)
| 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).
Using the table above, name one main component of the food security index and outline what it measures.
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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.
Human factors are wealth, technology, trade, migration, culture and advertising. As regions develop, their diets shift, and that shift feeds straight into health.
Human factors that change food consumption over time
| 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).
Explain how one human factor can change the type or amount of food people consume over time.
Model answer plan
See the answer broken into clear points, with guidance on how each point earns marks.
The hunger index and the nutrition transition
- Global Hunger Index — combines undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality into one score; the worst scores are in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
- Why combine indicators — calories alone miss whether children are growing properly, so the index adds stunting (low height for age) and wasting (low weight for height).
- The nutrition transition — as incomes rise and people move to cities, diets shift from staple grains and vegetables to meat, sugar, fats and processed food, and obesity and diabetes rise; many countries now face undernutrition and obesity at the same time.
How nutrition links to disease: Malnutrition and disease feed each other. But nutrition is not the only cause, so the link must be weighed, not assumed.
Two routes from diet to disease
- 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.
Other causes of disease: Poverty, unsafe water, poor sanitation and overcrowding also spread disease.
Undernutrition and disease in the Sahel: 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.
Disease without hunger in sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti
In much of sub-Saharan Africa, malaria spreads through climate and mosquitoes regardless of diet. 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.
- A justified conclusion.
"Disease in poorer regions is mainly caused by malnutrition." To what extent do you agree?
Model answer plan
See the answer broken into clear points, with guidance on how each point earns marks.