Are we secure? Reflections on indicators for evaluating food and nutritional security

Abstract

The concept of food security, collectively constructed in the Brazilian scenario, is considered an important element to promote reflections in the area of Social Nutrition. This article aims to reflect on the evaluation indicators for food and nutrition security in Brazil. This brief reflection focuses on the challenges of experts and researchers in food and nutritional security to embrace its interdisciplinary principles. One expects to motivate the interest in developing new indicators and evaluation methodologies and more comprehensive and systemic instruments to collect information about food insecurity. It is deemed important to promote reflection on the limitations of the scales of measurement of food and nutrition (in)security in pointing and covering the complementarities between the experience of such insecurity and the processes and agents that produce this phenomenon. Issues to be explored in future studies are the inclusion of understanding the health-disease process and the care of morbidity resulting from food and nutrition insecurity.

Health foods; Public health; Food security and nutrition