What should we be eating?
Is there one right answer?
Is it as simple as choosing to eat well?
Diets must be healthy for us to grow, work and thrive. Are they? Hardly, for a great many – and current agrifood systems have much to do with it.
What we eat was historically rooted in a place, a soil, a culture; it would reflect understandings of self and community, of heritage and values. Yet this is ever less the case. Variety is dwindling. Biodiversity is being lost. Affordability barriers further darken the outlook: for more than three billion of us, healthy diets are a mirage.
The principles of healthy eating, we now know, are universal; the particulars are infinitely varied. Solutions for eating better – globally, locally – do exist. Some are proven. Others hold promise. These pages sum up FAO’s work across agrifood systems to improve nutrition for all.
Our vision is simple: a world where healthy diets are the norm. Whatever the specifics, the setting, the culture.
Required citation:
FAO. 2024. The quest for healthy diets – FAO’s work to secure better nutrition. Rome https://doi.org/10.4060/cd1587en
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