Why Physiological Rights Go Beyond the Right to Food
The right to food is a fundamental internationally recognised human right. It guarantees access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food. However, it is insufficient to cover all needs related to physiological integrity.
Physiological rights go beyond food by recognising that many physiological parameters cannot be maintained or restored through diet alone. For example:
- Essential nutrient deficiencies: Even a balanced diet may be insufficient to correct certain deficiencies (in vitamin D, magnesium, or omega-3s, for instance), which require targeted supplementation.
- Hormonal imbalances: Conditions such as hypothyroidism or testosterone deficiency cannot be resolved through diet alone and require specific medical interventions.
- Environmental and biological factors: Pollution, chronic stress, chronic illness, or genetic factors can prevent the body from adequately absorbing or using nutrients, making a more interventionist approach necessary.
This limit is not an external critique of the right to food. General Comment 12 on ICESCR Art. 11 specifies that food adequacy covers the individual’s nutritional needs, and the doctrinal line of the Special Rapporteurs on the right to food (Ziegler, De Schutter, Elver, Fakhri) has made this specificity explicit within the UN system. Physiological rights extend the same movement to the substrates for which food alone can no longer serve as vector. See The Instruments Already Exist.
In short, the right to food is necessary but not sufficient. Physiological rights complement this framework by insisting on the need for active interventions to maintain or restore each individual’s normal biological parameters, beyond what diet alone can provide.