For the first time, there are more children in the world who are obese than underweight, according to a major study by children’s charity Unicef.<\/p>\n
Around one in 10 of those aged between five and 19 years old – around 188 million children and young people – are now thought to be affected by obesity.<\/p>\n
Researchers blame a shift from traditional diets to ones heavily reliant on ultra-processed foods that are relatively cheap and high in calories.<\/p>\n
Unicef, an agency of the United Nations, is urging governments to protect children’s diets from unhealthy ingredients and stop the ultra-processed food industry from interfering in policy decisions.<\/p>\n
When health experts used to refer to malnourished children, that was often read as those who were underweight.<\/p>\n
Not any more \u2013 that term now also refers to the impact of obesity on the health and development of children. Even in poorer countries that is now a real concern.<\/p>\n
Children are considered overweight when they are significantly heavier than a healthy weight for their age, sex and height.<\/p>\n
Obesity is a severe form of being overweight, and is linked to a higher risk of type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers, in later life.<\/p>\n
Throughout childhood, good nutrition, including plenty of fruit, vegetables and protein, plays a vital role in growth, cognitive development and mental health.<\/p>\n
But many traditional diets are being displaced by ultra-processed foods, often high in sugar, starch, salt, unhealthy fats and additives.<\/p>\n
Unicef executive director Catherine Russell says the challenges posed by obesity should not be under-estimated. She said it’s \u00ab\u00a0a growing concern\u00a0\u00bb that can affect the health and development of children.<\/p>\n
Undernutrition – which can manifest itself as wasting and stunting – remains a significant problem in the under-fives in many low and middle income countries.<\/p>\n
But the latest data from Unicef – a study that draws on data from more than 190 countries – finds the prevalence of underweight children aged 5-19 has declined since 2000, from nearly 13% to 9.2%.<\/p>\n
Obesity rates however have increased from 3% to 9.4%, meaning that almost one in 10 children are now obese.<\/p>\n
The number of overweight children – which includes those who are obese – has also increased to the extent that now 1 in five school-age children and adolescents are overweight.<\/p>\n
That’s roughly 391 million children across the globe, the study estimates.<\/p>\n
Obesity now exceeds underweight in all regions of the world, except sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.<\/p>\n
The highest rates of obesity among children and young people are found in some of the Pacific Island states, including Niue (38%), the Cook Islands (37%), and Nauru (33%).<\/p>\n
But many high-income countries also face a serious obesity problem. Among 5-19 year olds, 27% are obese in Chile, 21% in the United States, and 21% in the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
Unicef’s Catherine Russell says: \u00ab\u00a0In many countries we are seeing the double burden of malnutrition \u2013 the existence of stunting and obesity.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0This requires targeted interventions.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Nutritious and affordable food must be available to every child to support their growth and development.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We urgently need policies that support parents and caretakers to access nutritious and healthy foods for their children.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Unicef warns that the health impacts and economic costs of doing nothing are potentially enormous.<\/p>\n
The report estimates that by 2035, the global economic impact of overweight and obesity is expected to surpass US$4 trillion (\u00a32.95 trillion) annually.<\/p>\n
It urges governments to take action, including on the labelling and marketing of food.<\/p>\n
That might include legal measures to protect children’s diets by removing ultra-processed foods from school canteens, introducing taxes on unhealthy foods and drinks and encouraging food producers to make changes to products – known as reformulation – to limit unhealthy ingredients and harmful substitutes.<\/p>\n
The report also calls for policy making to be protected from interference by the ultra-processed food industry.<\/p>\n
Ultra-processed food and drink producers could be banned from involvement in developing and implementing policy and any industry political lobbying would have to be officially reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the first time, there are more children in the world who are obese than underweight, according to a major study by children’s charity Unicef. Around one in 10 of those aged between five and 19 years old – around 188 million children and young people – are now thought to be affected by obesity. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}