In this episode of The Work We Do, we speak with Lynnette Neufeld, Director of FAO's Food and Nutrition Division, about the complex realities behind today's nutrition challenges.
The conversation explores the double burden of malnutrition, where undernutrition and obesity can coexist within the same country, community, household or even individual. We also discuss why healthy diets costs more and the difficulties of advancing nutrition policies in contexts shaped by conflicting interests, commercial pressure and the need for stronger policy coherence.
Lynnette reflects on her years working on the evaluation of Mexico's landmark conditional cash transfer programme, the mentors and experiences in Latin America that shaped her path from young researcher to senior leader in international nutrition, and her vision for FAO's role in the nutrition agenda: helping shift the focus from simply feeding the world to enabling access to and consumption of healthy diets for all.
00:00Evidence over interests 00:45Intro 00:59The double burden of malnutrition 04:44Policy responses 08:20Why unhealthy food is cheaper 12:54Nutrition beyond health 14:41Ultra-processed foods 19:08Commercial pressure 22:39The role of advertising 25:30Governments, business and civil society 30:14Healthy diets and misinformation 32:51FAO's role in nutrition 39:02Mexico's cash transfer programme 42:17Evaluation and implementation 49:00Latin America and mentorship 01:10Healthy diets
