A THIRD of the world`s 700 million childrenunderthe age ofhve are undernourished or overweight and face lifelong health problems as a consequence, according to a grim assessment of childhood nutrition by the UN released recently.
`If children eat poorly, they live poorly, said United Nations Children`s Fund Executive Director Henrietta Fore, unveiling the fund`s first State of the World`s Children report since 1999.
Despite a nearly 40 per cent drop from 1990 to 2015 of stunting in poor countries, 149m children four years old or younger are today still too short for their age, a clinical condition that impairs both brain and body development.
Another 50m are afflicted by wasting, a chronic and debilitating thinness also born of poverty.
