{"id":36938,"date":"2025-09-10T06:03:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T06:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/more-children-are-obese-than-underweight-unicef-warns\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T06:03:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T06:03:13","slug":"more-children-are-obese-than-underweight-unicef-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/more-children-are-obese-than-underweight-unicef-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"More children are obese than underweight, Unicef warns"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/p>\n

Dominic Hughes<\/span>Global Health correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Obesity among children and young people is now a global problem<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

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<\/div>\n

Overweight and malnourished <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\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 “a growing concern” that can affect the health and development of children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

1 in 10 are now obese<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\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<\/a> 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: “In many countries we are seeing the double burden of malnutrition \u2013 the existence of stunting and obesity. <\/p>\n

“This requires targeted interventions. <\/p>\n

“Nutritious and affordable food must be available to every child to support their growth and development. <\/p>\n

“We urgently need policies that support parents and caretakers to access nutritious and healthy foods for their children.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Call to action<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dominic HughesGlobal Health correspondent Getty Images Obesity among children and young people is now a global problem 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[587,11790,11791,11792,346],"class_list":["post-36938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-children","tag-obese","tag-underweight","tag-unicef","tag-warns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36940,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36938\/revisions\/36940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}