Malnutrition, in the lay perception, is associated with deficiency of food. But a recent UNICEF report has added a worrying layer to the public understanding of malnutrition by revealing that there are now more obese than underweight children in the world for the first time ever. Obesity has been skyrocketing among children: around 188 million children and teenagers aged between five and 19 are now considered obese. The incessant consumption of addictive but unhealthy ultra-processed foods —high on sugar, salt, fat and additives — in combination with a sedentary lifestyle, has led to a spike in the obesity rate that has more than tripled — from 3% to 9.4% — in the past 25 years, leading to acute malnutrition, according to the UNICEF report, which collated data from more than 190 countries. The population of underweight children, not insignificant in India, fell from 13% to 9.2% in the same period. This means that children these days are eating more but are consuming less healthy food, leading to malnutrition that can be attributed to not deficiencies in consumption but, ironically, excess food that is low in nutrients. Little wonder then that the UPFs market is estimated to grow by $856.6 billion five years from now. Consequently, obese and underweight children coexist in the same community, often in the same household. High-income countries as well as their low- and middle-income counterparts have registered a steep rise in the number of overweight children. India, which is projected to have more than 27 million children and adolescents by 2030, UNICEF has warned, may have the highest burden of overweight and obese citizens within the next decade.
Obese children run the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and some cancers. Unsurprisingly, the global economic cost of obesity is expected to exceed $4 trillion annually by 2035. Addressing the obesity challenge requires urgent changes in lifestyle: junking junk food and embracing mobility and exercise hold the key. Institutional interventions like labelling of, marketing restrictions on, and taxing UPFs are important. Curbing advertisements — 75% of teenagers are targeted by commercials for unhealthy snacks — and the sale of such food near educational centres can be explored along with subsidising healthy food items like fruits and vegetables so that they become affordable. It is thus not enough to have food on the table; the kind
of food on it may spell the difference between
survival and suffering.