There's more to malnutrition than hunger

"5,500 people were admitted to hospital in the UK for malnutrition last year."

So said 27 Anglican Bishops and 16 other faith leaders in a letter to the Mirror today, which called on the government to ensure welfare and wages were enough to tackle the "national crisis" of hunger.

We've covered this claim before and the numbers stack up, but there are caveats. Firstly, 5,500 is the number of malnutrition-related admissions in the last year, not the number of people admitted. Secondly, as we said when the figures were released, malnutrition is not always caused by hunger:

"The NHS defines malnutrition as a condition that occurs when somebody's diet doesn't contain the correct balance of nutrients… It isn't always linked to hunger — those who are overweight or obese can also be described as malnourished if their high calorie diet is low in vital nutrients."

While income levels and welfare policy may have a role to play in causing malnutrition, the link is far from straightforward. Notably, you'd expect an older population to have more cases of malnutrition.

The letter also said that 20% of mothers skip meals to feed their children. We're looking into this and plan to post a factcheck later today.