One out of three young children undernourished or overweight: UNICEF

A third of the world's nearly 700 million children under five years old are undernourished or overweight and face lifelong health problems as a consequence, according to a grim UN assessment of childhood nutrition released Tuesday.

"If children eat poorly, they live poorly," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, unveiling the Fund's first State of the World's Children report since 1999.

"We are losing ground in the fight for healthy diets."

Problems that once existed at opposite ends of the wealth spectrum have today converged in poor and middle-income countries, the report showed.

Despite a nearly 40-percent drop from 1990 to 2015 of stunting in poor countries, 149 million children four or younger are today still too short for their age, a clinical condition that impairs both brain and body development.

Another 50 million are afflicted by wasting, a chronic and debilitating thinness also born of poverty.

At the same time, half of youngsters across the globe under five are not getting essential vitamins and minerals, a long-standing problem UNICEF has dubbed "hidden hunger."

Over the last three decades, however, another form of child malnutrition has surged across the developing world: excess weight.

Among children under five, diet during first 1,000 days after conception is the foundation for physical health and mental development.

And yet, only two in five infants under six months are exclusively breastfed, as recommended. Sales of milk-based formula have risen worldwide by 40 percent, and in upper-middle-income countries such as Brazil, China, and Turkey by nearly three-quarters.

Missing vitamins and minerals, meanwhile, can lead to compromised immune systems, poor sight and hearing defects. A lack of iron can cause anemia and reduced IQ.

"It's 'hidden' because you don't notice the impact until it is too late," Brian Keeley, the editor-in-chief of report, told AFP.

"You don't notice that the child is running a little slower than everyone else, struggling a bit in school."

The rise of obesity, however, is plain to see.

The problem was virtually non-existent in poor countries 30 years ago, but today, at least 10 percent of under-five-year-olds are overweight or obese in three-quarters of low-income nations.

SS