Malnutrition now affects the entire planet

The scourge of malnutrition now affects almost all countries in the world. This is the alarming observation made by the “Global Nutrition Report“, the annual report conducted on 140 countries around the world unveiled this Saturday, November 4 at the World Summit on Nutrition in Milan. Among the 140 countries studied, the Global Nutrition report identified three major forms of malnutrition: infant growth retardation, anemia in women of childbearing age, and a worrying increase in obese or overweight adult women.

According to the report, one in three people suffer from malnutrition worldwide. More than 155 million children under the age of five experience stunted growth due to a lack of food and 52 million suffer from extreme thinness, particularly in Africa and Asia. Conversely, up to 1.9 billion adults (of the world’s 7 billion population) are overweight or obese. In North America, one-third of men and women are overweight or obese. The youngest are also affected: 41 million children under five are overweight. This figure is also true in Africa, where nearly 10 million children are considered “too fat”.

The authors of the report are therefore sounding the alarm on the urgency for countries to place nutrition at the heart of their concerns – both in terms of funding and prevention campaigns – in order to eradicate poverty, combat diseases, improve educational standards and combat climate change. “The world can no longer afford not to act on nutrition or we risk stunting human development as a whole,” said Corinna Hawkes, Co-Chair of the Global Nutrition Report Independent Expert Panel and Director of the Center for food policy.

“We will not achieve any of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 unless there is a step change in our response to malnutrition in all its forms. Likewise, we need actions across the Goals to address the many causes of malnutrition,” she added.