Poorly fed

. A country that can feed its people but cannot nourish them has a food policy problem. Pakistan has spent decades worrying, understandably, about whether there is enough wheat in the market and whether flour remains within reach of households. Yet this narrow preoccupation with calories has obscured a more damaging deficiency. A large part of the population may be eating, but it is not eating well. The latest assessment by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation makes that failure difficult to ignore. More than 60% of Pakistanis cannot afford a healthy diet. More revealing, however, is what lies behind this figure. Pakistan's food supply itself is poorly aligned with what constitutes a healthy diet. Staples and sugar are available in excess of dietary requirements, while vegetables, fruits, pulses, roots and tubers remain in short supply. This should force a rethink of what Pakistan means by food security. Preventing hunger cannot be the final ambition of food policy. A plate heavy in carbohydrates but deficient in protein, vitamins and minerals may fill a stomach without adequately nourishing the person eating it. As a result, Pakistan continues to carry an extraordinarily high burden of childhood stunting and wasting. Micronutrient deficiencies remain widespread. At the same time, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease are becoming more common. To solve this predicament, a number of steps can be taken. Agricultural support should increasingly encourage pulses, vegetables, fruits and other nutritionally important foods without jeopardising the production of essential staples. Responsibility cannot end at the farm gate. Pakistan's food environment increasingly exposes children to aggressively marketed products high in sugar, salt and fat. Clearer nutrition labels, tighter restrictions on advertising unhealthy food to children and sensible fiscal measures can help shift consumption. Social protection must also recognise that food insecurity is not simply the absence of food.