Why Does Hunger Matter?

The Effects of Hunger are Debilitating and Long lasting

Poor nutrition at any stage in life, even before birth, can have permanent effects on learning ability. Hunger affects children’s social interactions, inquisitiveness and overall intellectual functioning.

Hunger and food insecurity are significant risk factors for a number of problems which include:

• poorer health and nutrition
•  diminished physical and psychological well-being
• higher levels of behavioral problems
• lower academic achievement.

Even short periods of hunger deprivation affect healthy development. People who are hungry can’t study, can’t work and can’t stay healthy. Senior adults are at an increased risk for disease due to the physical and psychosocial changes of aging. Hunger and malnutrition compound the issue. The propensity to eat junk food drops dramatically when a person has eaten a good breakfast. There is a positive link between hunger and obesity.


Hunger manifests itself in many ways other than starvation and famine. Most poor people who battle hunger deal with chronic undernourishment and vitamin or mineral deficiencies, which result in stunted growth, weakness and heightened susceptibility to illness.


Undernourishment negatively affects people’s health, productivity, sense of hope and overall well-being. A lack of food can stunt growth, slow thinking, sap energy, hinder fetal development and contribute to mental retardation.


Economically, the constant securing of food consumes valuable time and energy of poor people, allowing less time for work and earning income.Socially, the lack of food erodes relationships and feeds shame so that those most in need of support are often least able to call on it.

As well as the obvious sort of hunger resulting from an empty stomach, there is also the hidden hunger of micro nutrient deficiencies which make people susceptible to infectious diseases, impairs physical and mental development, reduces their labor productivity and increases the risk of premature death.

Hunger does not only weigh on the individual. It also imposes a crushing economic burden on the developing world. Economists estimate that every child whose physical and mental development is
stunted by hunger and malnutrition stands to lose 5-10 percent in lifetime earnings.

(World Food Programme, 2010)