The new face of malnutrition

Unicef warns that obesity now surpasses underweight among children and adolescents, driven by ultra-processed foods flooding poorly regulated markets like South Africa. By Adèle Sulcas

- Adèle Sulcas

For the first time in recorded history, obesity has overtaken underweight as the main form of malnutrition among children and adolescents. The global prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents is now 9.4%, compared with 9.2% for underweight.

The UN agency for children, Unicef, published its annual child nutrition report in September, revealing the stark reality of the changing face of malnutrition everywhere and pointing the finger squarely at the ultra-processed food and beverage industry for strategically driving this shift. The report's analysis draws on data from 190 countries and exhaustive global research by Unicef, the World Health Organization and nutrition experts around the world.

The report, titled Feeding Profit: How Food Environments are Failing Children, has earned plaudits in the nutrition and health policy world for its focus on the pernicious influence of transnational food corporations on the eating habits of children around the world with particularly dramatic effects on children in lowand middle-income countries.

These corporations - the likes of Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Unilever, PepsiCo, Mondelēz, McDonald's and Kellogg's - are intensifying their sales and marketing in lowand middle-income countries, including South Africa, because they tend to offer them the greatest growth potential.

This is because these countries tend to be underregulated or poorly regulated on food-related issues, enabling the ultra-processed food and beverage companies to take advantage of this regulatory vulnerability to sell their cheap, unhealthy products relatively easily.