Maritza Zela: “It is increasingly expensive to access healthy food”

The risk of more Peruvians having access to less food is latent, according to the national dean of the CNP, Maritza Zela, with whom we also talked about social programs and their relationship with the milk regulation, as well as the application of octagons under the Nutritionist Daywhich is celebrated every August 11.

—Could the number of Peruvians in food insecurity increase this year?

—In 2022 we had 16.6 million people in a situation of food insecurity, according to the FAO, that is, more than 50% of the population. Therefore, lack of access to healthy food is almost likely to increase as well and that the indicators of malnutrition of the triple burden (overweight, malnutrition and lack of micronutrients) cannot be reversed. It is unfortunate that this issue was not addressed in the president’s speech on July 28.

– What factors would be influencing?

Faced with the recession and the increase in poverty that we are experiencing, the probability that the cost of healthy eating will increase is high. As of 2020, the cost of a healthy diet was US$3.28 per person per day; in 2021 it was US$3.66.

We are seeing how it is clearly increasing and the trend is upward.

Are social programs not enough?

—They have been operating for quite some time and have not given the results we hope for.

The idea is that we have increasingly healthier children and not that we create more social programs because there are more children with malnutrition, anemia or obesity. These programs are created to cover the nutritional needs of a more disadvantaged part of the population.

So, if highly nutritious and innocuous products are not considered in their food package, the relevance and impact is less and we are seeing it with the indicators.

What are the most worrying figures?

—We have 2.7 million people with malnutrition, this is very high; 4.1 million adults with obesity and children under 5 years of age who are also obese.

—Social programs are authorizing the delivery of dairy mixes instead of evaporated milk. It is advisable?

—In social programs, all food must be of the best nutritional quality to reverse the indicators.

—It is imperative that this accessibility exists, since we are seeing that it is increasingly expensive and difficult to access healthy eating. I call on the authorities that if they are going to deliver evaporated milk, that it be from fresh milk, as the new regulation indicates (DS 004-2022).

—In this context, what role do octagons play?

—The healthy eating law was approved in the country with the intention of reversing the indicators and giving people access to information; however, recently we have seen that breast milk substitutes do not have octagons. From the CNP we have begun monitoring the application of this law and the report with the results will be delivered to the Ministry of Health in September.