Global report on children’s nutrition

Date: 29th October 2019
Category: Disability, Basic Health and Welfare

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UNICEF's report Children, food and nutrition: Growing well in a changing world examines the issue of children, food and nutrition and provides a fresh perspective on this rapidly evolving challenge.

It includes new data and analyses of malnutrition, with the main findings including.

  • 149 million children’s growth is stunted, or children are too short for their age
  • 50 million children suffer wasting, or are too thin for their height
  • 340 million children – or 1 in 2 – suffer from deficiencies in essential vitamins and nutrients such as vitamin A and iron
  • 40 million children are overweight or obese

The report notes that a broken food system that fails to provide children with the diets they need to grow healthily is at the centre of the profound triple burden of malnutrition – undernutrition, hidden hunger and overweight. It also outlines recommendations to put children’s rights at the heart of food systems.