Serious food crisis in Venezuela reflected in skipped meals and weight loss

A mother in Venezuela shows her frustration on how she does her food shopping amid shortages and high inflation in Venezuela: Whatever is cheapest in the season is what her children eat,

"What I have at home is enough to give them a plain arepa, (arepa is a type of food made of ground maize dough or cooked flour prominent in the cuisine of Colombia and Venezuela). and it's very little for each one," the woman, Grecia Gonzalez, told this source in Español, referring to the traditional white corn cakes. "And for me, I don't care about going without eating. As a mother, you're always thinking about feeding (your children)."

New data from an annual national survey by three of Venezuela's major universities and other research groups has found that Gonzalez's experience is very common in the oil-rich Country. And like Gonzalez and her children, the survey found more Venezuelans are skipping meals and the percentage of malnourished is very high.

The number of survey respondents who reported eating two or fewer meals per day nearly tripled from the previous year's survey, rising from 11.3% in 2015 to 32.5% in 2016. Based on the data, the authors of the study estimate that some 9.6 million Venezuelans eat two or fewer daily meals.

Source: edition.cnn.com