Obesity in children is now more common than nutritional – What do we do?

For the first time, more children around the world live more obese than lack of nutrition. The shift indicates that childhood malnutrition has entered a new stage, the world is not equipped for treatment. While there are installed strategies to reduce hunger, a few of them are present to treat obesity.

“Despite years of efforts to really prevent obesity, especially among children and youth, it is clear that we are not doing this job,” he says. Andrea Richardson In Rand, a non -profit research organization in California.

In a new report, Harriet Torles At UNICEF in Belgium and its colleagues, the nutritional condition of children between the ages of 5 and 19 was analyzed using data from The cooperation factor cooperated with non -infectious diseases. This cooperative database extends to more than 160 countries and region, representing more than 90 percent of children around the world.

The report revealed that since 2000, obesity rates have multiplied in global childhood almost three times. About 9.4 per cent of children today live with obesity, compared to 9.2 per cent who suffer from nutritional deficiency – the first time that obesity has exceeded the lack of nutrition among children.

This shift is largely driven by high obesity rates in low -income countries, “more than 80 percent of children with weight gain and obesity in the world,” says Torlesse. “It is no longer a high -income problem. It is a big problem in the world.”

The implicit meaning is that governments and other organizations should rethink their approach to childhood malnutrition. “You only look at the lack of nutrition, but also look at malnutrition in all its forms,” ​​he says. Shaybani Ghosh At Cornell University in New York State. The problem is that we do not have an effective playing book to combat obesity as we do for hunger.

the UNICEF report High childhood obesity rates blame the spread of highly treated foods. These products, made of industrial processes, contain additions and preservatives. It also tends to be high in fats, sugars and salt – Think of bottled cookies, sweets, potatoes and soda. According to the report, very treated foods are half of the calories that children consume in Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, and about a third of children who are consumed by children in some low and medium -income countries, including Argentina and Mexico.

Several studies have been associated with very treated foods with an increased risk of obesity. However, the policies designed to reduce their consumption – which rarely advise UNICEF – rarely make obesity rates in obesity rates.

Consider taxes on unhealthy foods. In 2014, Mexico became the first country to impose taxes on some high -calorie foods and sugar -sweetened drinks. After that, sales of these products fell, especially among low -income families, but Adolescent obesity rates hardly skate. In fact, they only decreased in teenage girls, as was the case in the UK after a tax on sugary drinks in 2018.

Meanwhile, Chile has some most comprehensive regulations on highly processed foods. In 2016, she restricted the marketing of these foods and drinks and assigned that these are high in calories, sodium, saturated fats and sugar who have warning stickers in front of packages to deter consumers. Obesity rates have declined in children between 4 and 6 years old 1 to 3 degrees Celsius A year later – but it returned to the basis in 2018. In fact, by 2019, obesity rates increased by 2 percentage points in those who were fourteen years of age, confirming the impact of these policies.

But Torlesse sees this differently. “There is no one interference that would do good,” she says. “So you see that some countries are carried out soda, or some countries that put food marks. That’s all impressive, but what you did not treat from all sides, we will not turn into the transformation we need.”

For this reason the report also encourages policies that increase nutritious foods and cost tolerance, such as benefits or school lunch programs. It emphasizes the importance of nutritional education and mitigating poverty as well. “The same reasons why we see people with lack of nutritional are the same reasons that make us see people suffering from excessive nutrition,” says Richardson. “It is really rooted in the lack of financial resources, living in poor areas, and poor access to food and safe drinking water.”

No country has implemented all UNICEF recommendations, so it is still an open question if it would be sufficient in obesity. “The implicit assumption is that due to the increase in the consumption of unhealthy foods, the rates of weight gain and obesity increase,” says Gush. “This can be part of the interpretation.”

But there may be additional drivers as well, such as pressureand pollution Even Genetic changes.

“We really need to see this as an urgent urgent condition for public health,” says Richardson. “Our children are our future. They should all be in good health. If our children do not flourish, our future does not seem very bright.”

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