‘There’s a path towards death that people travel’: how hunger destroys lives and communities

A child in Mogadishu, Somalia, where malnutrition is escalating, and the UN warns famine is likely to be declared later this year. Photograph: Bernard Bisson/Sygma/Getty Images

The human body is smart, says Dr Christopher Mambula, medical manager for east Africa at Médecins Sans Frontières. He’s talking about the physical effects of food deprivation, a subject that gets little attention even within the medical world, and yet, as aid agencies continue to report, affects hundreds of millions of people around the world. “If it doesn’t have enough food to convert into energy,” he continues, “it will burn through its own fat reserves, breaking down fat cells into fatty acids to be used for energy or converted into glucose by the liver.”

How long it takes for the body to use up all its fat deposits depends on multiple factors: the amount and nutritional value of food being eaten; the individual’s metabolism; their activity levels; their body mass index; and their age and overall health.