People don't generally starve in countries with high GDP - when they do, it's a distributional problem and a flawed social system at work. If we define GDP as

People don't generally starve in countries with high GDP - when they do, it's a distributional problem and a flawed social system at work. If we define GDP as the totality of transactions people are willing to make, then an inflation adjusted growth means that the average citizen will enter more transaction of a higher subjective value. Therefore (again, assuming inflation and the price of basic necessities is controlled for) it stands to reason more of those transactions will be directed towards the basic necessities. So, generally, higher GDP means fewer people starving, with the distributional and inflation caveats mentioned.