The world’s poorest countries are facing a dual health challenge of malnutrition and obesity among children, experts warned today.
Malnutrition is still responsible for 50% of child deaths worldwide – but obesity poses a massive threat to future health, experts said.
A new study by Professor Robert Black, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA, reported in The Lancet, finds that just two years ago 100 million of the world’s children were underweight – and 165 million were afflicted by inadequate growth.
Meanwhile the World Health Organisation issued its own guidelines, warning that 75% of overweight children now live in developing countries.
It said improved nutrition and more breast-feeding would help solve both problems.
Professor Black said: "While there have been some improvements in nutritional conditions in recent years, the extent of these conditions remains high with serious detrimental health consequences.
"The high number of child deaths related to both stunting and wasting is unacceptable, and at the same time, rising levels of obesity and overweight will have vast implications for future health care expenditures and the overall development of nations."
Dr Francesco Branca, of WHO, said: “Increasingly, we find overweight children living in countries where undernutrition is also still an issue.
“While it is vital to maintain efforts to reduce undernutrition, the world needs to do much more to prevent and care for the growing numbers of people that are overweight or obese and living in low- and middle-income countries.”
He added: "To avoid a massive explosion of nutrition problems in the next generation, policymakers urgently need to give more attention to improving the nutritional status of pregnant women and adolescent girls who will become mothers of the next generation."
Lancet 6 June 2013
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