UNICEF warns childhood obesity surpasses underweight globally

Globally, one in 20 children under five and one in five children and adolescents aged 5–19 are overweight. 

Childhood obesity has now surpassed underweight as the more common form of malnutrition globally, the United Nations Children’s Fund(UNICEF) has warned.

In a new report titled Feeding Profit: How Food Environments are Failing Children, UNICEF says the prevalence of underweight among children aged 5–19 years has dropped since 2000, from nearly 13 per cent to 9.2 per cent.