Consumers have a variety of food choices available each day to satisfy cravings.
Yet a study into some of Asia's neglected crops shows many foods are being under-utilised when they could be harnessed to help nations going hungry.
The joint research is from the University of Western Australia's Institute of Agriculture and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
The authors say the leading cause of malnutrition is an over-reliance on commercially popular staple crops, and limited dietary diversity in Asia.
Those staple crops are rice, maize and wheat, which account for about 60 per cent of the world's food energy intake.
Dietitian Nicole Senior agrees Australia is dependent on these options.
"So one of the things that we can do to shore up local food security is to focus on locally produced foods and especially in the Asia Pacific region I think that is a really important path to ensuring that nobody goes without and that everyone is enjoying culturally appropriate locally grown food."
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