More Obese Than Undernourished Kids Worldwide: UNICEF

UNICEF warns that obese kids worldwide present outnumber those who are undernourished. Credit: Corwinhee/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0

Obese kids present outnumber undernourished children worldwide, UNICEF warned Tuesday. Childhood and teen obesity person surpassed undernutrition arsenic the astir communal signifier of malnutrition among 5- to 19-year-olds.

UNICEF projected that astir 1 successful 10 children and adolescents volition beryllium surviving with obesity by 2025. The bureau said the emergence is driven by the wide availability and assertive selling of ultra-processed foods, adjacent successful countries inactive struggling with kid undernutrition.

“When we speech astir malnutrition, we are nary longer conscionable talking astir underweight children,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said successful a statement. She warned that ultra-processed foods are displacing fruits, vegetables, and proteins astatine a clip erstwhile bully nutrition is indispensable for steadfast growth, encephalon development, and intelligence health.

Hunger declines portion obesity surges

Global efforts to trim hunger person shown progress. Between 2000 and 2022, the stock of underweight youths dropped from 13 percent to 10 percent, according to information from 190 countries. But during the aforesaid period, the fig of overweight children and adolescents much than doubled, rising from 194 cardinal to 391 million.

Obese children officially outnumber starving ones for archetypal clip ever – Unicef#HealthyNation https://t.co/8qXM6nRCbF pic.twitter.com/lAC7FOZnBI

— Daily Nation (@NationAfrica) September 11, 2025

The summation is adjacent sharper successful cases of obesity, a much terrible signifier of overweight linked to diabetes, definite cancers, anxiety, and depression. In 2022, astir 8 percent of those aged 5 to 19—163 cardinal children and adolescents—were obese, up from conscionable 3 percent successful 2000.

UNICEF said the satellite has present reached “a historical turning point,” with obesity affecting 9.4 percent of the property radical successful 2024, compared with 9.2 percent who were underweight. That translates to an estimated 188 cardinal young radical surviving with obesity.

Junk nutrient selling nether fire

UNICEF placed work not connected families but connected what it called unethical concern practices. Children “are being bombarded by… unhealthy nutrient selling of junk foods,” said Katherine Shats, a UNICEF ineligible adept successful nutrition, speaking to AFP.

Schools, she said, are a cardinal tract of exposure, wherever sugary drinks and salty snacks situation students, often sold astatine a little terms than caller produce.

UNICEF’s caller information is simply a wake-up call: children and adolescents with obesity present outnumber those who are underweight. We indispensable put successful regularisation of ultra-processed nutrient selling to kids, subsidized steadfast foods, and school-based nutrition programmes to support lifelong health. pic.twitter.com/Ntv5fSylK7

— Nutritionist Lucy Chege (@LucyChegeM) September 12, 2025

The bureau stressed that the situation reflects “a nonaccomplishment of nine to support the environments that children turn up in.” It besides rejected the thought that sports oregon workout tin offset the harm caused by mediocre diets.

“It is intolerable to ‘outrun’ the wellness consequences of a fare precocious successful escaped sugars, refined starches, salt, trans-fats, harmful additives and excessive vigor done carnal enactment alone,” the study stated.

The spread betwixt affluent and mediocre nations narrows

Overweight rates stay precocious successful wealthier nations, including Chile, wherever 27% of children and adolescents are affected, and the United States, astatine 21%. But the spread betwixt affluent and mediocre nations is shrinking.

Obesity rates person soared successful respective Pacific islands, wherever imported goods are replacing accepted foods. In Niue, 38 percent of those aged 5 to 19 are obese, portion the Cook Islands study 37 percent.

In immoderate countries, the occupation is twofold, with undernutrition persisting alongside rising obesity. Shats noted that successful struggle zones and humanitarian crises, large nutrient and beverage companies exploit the concern by donating ultra-processed foods to boost their image.

UNICEF calls for stronger authorities action

Children are being fixed entree to “this precise unhealthy nutrient due to the fact that of these predatory tactics from the industry,” Shats said. UNICEF is urging governments to enforce stricter rules. These measures see advertizing restrictions, taxes connected sugary drinks and processed foods, and policies that promote the accumulation of caller fruits and vegetables.