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The Global Nutrient Database: availability of macronutrients and micronutrients in 195 countries from 1980 to 2013

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Schmidhuber, Josef, Sur, Patrick, Fay, Kairsten, Huntley, Bethany, Salama, Joseph, Lee, Alexander, Cornaby, Leslie, Horino, Masako, Murray, Christopher, Afshin, Ashkan·2018·The Lancet Planetary Health
DOI 10.1016/s2542-5196(18)30170-0PMC PMC6076406
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Few data are available on the supply and consumption of nutrients at the country level. To address this data gap, we aimed to create a database that provides information on availability (ie, supply) of 156 nutrients across 195 countries and territories from 1980 to 2013. METHODS: We matched 394 food and agricultural commodities from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Supply and Utilization Accounts (SUAs) to food items in the United States Department of Agriculture Food Composition Database and obtained data on nutrient composition of the SUAs' food items. Then, after adjusting for inedible portion of each food item, we added the contributions of individual food items to the availability of each nutrient and estimated the national availability of macronutrients and micronutrients in each year. We validated our estimates by comparing our results with those of national nutrition surveys from three countries (the USA, South Korea, and Ecuador). Using dietary consumption data from the Global Burden of Disease study and two popular machine learning algorithms (Random Forest and XGBoost [extreme gradient boosting]), we developed predictive models to estimate the consumption of each nutrient based on their national availability. FINDINGS: Globally 2710 kcal (95% UI 2660-2770) were available per person per day in 2013. Carbohydrates were the major contributor to energy availability (70·5%), followed by fats (17·4%), and protein (10·5%). The energy availability and the contribution of macronutrients to total energy widely varied across levels of development. Countries at the higher level of development (high Socio-demographic Index countries) had more energy available per person per day (3270 kcal, 3220-3310); greater contributions from fats (26·0%) and proteins (11·9%) to total energy availability; and lower contributions from carbohydrate (54·8%). During 1980-2013, energy availability and the contributions of protein and fats to energy availability have increased globally and across levels of development while the contribution of carbohydrates to total energy availability has decreased. The supply of the micronutrients has also increased during the same period globally and across levels of development. Our validation analysis showed that, after accounting for waste at the retail and household level, our estimates of macronutrient availability were very close to the consumption data in nationally representative surveys. Our machine-learning models closely predicted the observed intake of nutrients with the out-of-sample correlation of greater than 0·8 between predicted and observed intake for the nutrients included in the analysis. INTERPRETATION: Our global nutrient database provides a picture of the supply of various nutrients at the country level and can be useful to assess the performance of national food systems in addressing the nutritional needs of their population. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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Figure 1 Availability of energy and macronutrients at globally and across levels of development, 1980–2013
Figure 1 Availability of energy and macronutrients at globally and across levels of development, 1980–2013CC BY · PubMed Central
Figure 2 Availability of energy and macronutrients by country in 2013 Maps show availability of (A) energy, (B) carbohydrate, (C) protein, (D) saturated fats, (E) monounsaturated fats, and (F) polyunsaturated fats. ATG=Antigua and Barbuda. VCT=Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. LCA=Saint Lucia. TTO=Trinidad and Tobago. Isl=Islands. FSM=Federated States of Micronesia. TLS=Timor-Leste.
Figure 2 Availability of energy and macronutrients by country in 2013 Maps show availability of (A) energy, (B) carbohydrate, (C) protein, (D) saturated fats, (E) monounsaturated fats, and (F) polyunsaturated fats. ATG=Antigua and Barbuda. VCT=Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. LCA=Saint Lucia. TTO=Trinidad and Tobago. Isl=Islands. FSM=Federated States of Micronesia. TLS=Timor-Leste.CC BY · PubMed Central
Figure 3 Contribution of macronutrients to energy availability by country in 2013 Maps show contribution of (A) carbohydrate, (B) protein, (C) monounsaturated fats, (D) polyunsaturated fats, and (E) saturated fats to energy availability. ATG=Antigua and Barbuda. VCT=Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. LCA=Saint Lucia. TTO=Trinidad and Tobago. Isl=Islands. FSM=Federated States of Micronesia. TLS=Timor-Leste.
Figure 3 Contribution of macronutrients to energy availability by country in 2013 Maps show contribution of (A) carbohydrate, (B) protein, (C) monounsaturated fats, (D) polyunsaturated fats, and (E) saturated fats to energy availability. ATG=Antigua and Barbuda. VCT=Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. LCA=Saint Lucia. TTO=Trinidad and Tobago. Isl=Islands. FSM=Federated States of Micronesia. TLS=Timor-Leste.CC BY · PubMed Central
Figure 4 Contribution of macronutrients to energy availability globally and across levels of development, 1980–2013 SDI=Socio-demographic Index.
Figure 4 Contribution of macronutrients to energy availability globally and across levels of development, 1980–2013 SDI=Socio-demographic Index.CC BY · PubMed Central
Figure 5 Availability of (A) zinc, (B) iron, and (C) vitamin A by country in 2013 ATG=Antigua and Barbuda. VCT=Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. LCA=Saint Lucia. TTO=Trinidad and Tobago. Isl=Islands. FSM=Federated States of Micronesia. TLS=Timor-Leste.
Figure 5 Availability of (A) zinc, (B) iron, and (C) vitamin A by country in 2013 ATG=Antigua and Barbuda. VCT=Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. LCA=Saint Lucia. TTO=Trinidad and Tobago. Isl=Islands. FSM=Federated States of Micronesia. TLS=Timor-Leste.CC BY · PubMed Central

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Metadata

Authors
Schmidhuber, J., Sur, P., Fay, K., Huntley, B., Salama, J., Lee, A., Cornaby, L., Horino, M., Murray, C., & Afshin, A.
Affiliations
  • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (IT)
  • University of Washington (US)
  • Nevada Department of Health and Human Services (US)
Corresponding author
Afshin, Ashkan
ORCID
Venue
The Lancet Planetary Health
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2018-08
Volume
2
Issue
8
Pages
e353-e368
ISSN
2542-5196 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/s2542-5196(18)30170-0
PMC
PMC6076406
OpenAlex
W2886197746
Cited by
109
References
12
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 1
FWCI
9.15
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • The Lancet Planetary Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Agricultural and Food Production Studies
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Nutrition, Health, and Society Studies
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact
Keywords
nutrient availability, macronutrients, micronutrients, energy availability, food supply, nutrient consumption, socio-demographic index, dietary habits, food waste, global burden of disease, food and agricultural commodities
MeSH terms
Nutrients, Nutrition Surveys, Global Health, Micronutrients, Databases as Topic

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