Uncovering the economic costs of unhealthy diets: A new methodology and country applications

The global food system is facing unprecedented challenges that hinder the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to hunger, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture. Hidden costs associated with the current food system were estimated to exceed US$10 trillion in 2020, and health-related costs in particular, significantly outweigh its benefits. Undernutrition incurs an estimated 2% of global GDP annually, while obesity-related costs amount to 3.1% of global GDP (FOLU 2019). With 800 million people experiencing hunger and millions more suffering from stunting, wasting, and obesity, the economic and social ramifications are profound—and the costs attributed to unhealthy dietary patterns are of serious consequence. 

In the Philippines, the double burden of malnutrition, characterized by the existence of both undernutrition (e.g., stunting, wasting) and overnutrition (e.g., overweight, obesity) within a population, poses significant public health challenges. In addition, the exposure to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) later in life, attributable to overweight/obesity, have significant economic costs with regard to morbidity and premature mortality.

In response to these challenges, the World Bank (WB) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) initiated a collaborative effort to assess the economic costs of unhealthy diets at the country level in the Philippines and Ethiopia. The report, “Uncovering the economic costs of unhealthy diets: A new methodology and country applications in Ethiopia and the Philippines”, discusses the development of a novel methodology for estimating the economic impact of unhealthy diets, focusing on health and socio-economic costs.  

Additionally, the WB and FAO team have engaged with the Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) to develop new country-level and sub-national analytics on the relationships between unhealthy diets, overweight/obesity, and health outcomes such as elevated blood pressure and elevated blood glucose using a more holistic measure of diet quality known as the Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS).  

This event will leverage findings from the report to address the pressing issues of dietary quality and nutrition. A detailed discussion of the methodology, the results of the Philippine country-level analysis, and preliminary findings of the regional dietary assessments will be presented. The event will provide a platform for stakeholders, including national government agencies, academia, and agrifood and nutrition and key players, to discuss the implications of dietary patterns on health outcomes and provide the foundation for policy engagement, program implementation, and behavior change in the Philippines.