NEW DELHI: One in twenty children under five years of age, or five per cent, and one in five children and adolescents aged five-19 years, or 20 per cent, are living with overweight globally, said a latest UNICEF report on Wednesday.
The new report ‘Feeding Profit: How Food Environments are Failing Children’ said the year 2025 marks a historic turning point: for the first time, the global prevalence of obesity among school-age children and adolescents has surpassed that of underweight.
“This amounts to an estimated 188 million children and adolescents aged 15–19 years living with obesity in 2025, compared with 184 children and adolescents living with underweight. Obesity now exceeds underweight in all regions of the world,” it said.
In South Asia, the report said that in the region, the number of children aged five-19 living with overweight has increased fivefold to 70 million since 2000.
Noting that every country in the South Asia region is affected, it said that obesity among children has more than doubled in the same period. At the same time, undernutrition and anaemia remain stubbornly high.
In addition to rising obesity, South Asia continues to carry the largest burden of undernutrition (low birth weight, stunting and wasting) in the world.
It highlighted alarming figures: One in three children under five years old is stunted; one in 10 children under five years old suffers from wasting; and one in four is born with low birth weight.
Likewise, South Asia carries the most considerable anaemia burden globally, affecting almost half of women and adolescent girls in the region.
“Leadership all over South Asia must prioritise collective action to overcome the triple burden of malnutrition so that, together, we can raise a generation of productive, thriving children who can build a strong and prosperous region,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia.
“No company should profit at the cost of children’s health. Governments must put stronger protections in place so that children grow up surrounded by healthy food choices, not junk food marketing,” said Wijesekera.
The report stated that their analysis has found that unhealthy foods and beverages, including ultra-processed foods and drinks, are widely available, inexpensive, and aggressively marketed in the places where children live, learn, and play.
“The unethical business practices of the ultra-processed food and beverage industry undermine efforts to put legal measures and policies in place to protect children from unhealthy food environments. However, with determined action, governments can adopt comprehensive, mandatory measures to reshape food environments and uphold children’s right to food and nutrition,” it said.
It highlighted that millions of children and adolescents are growing up in environments where sugary drinks, salty and sweet snacks and fast foods, including ultra-processed foods and beverages, are highly accessible and aggressively marketed.
“These unhealthy food environments are driving nutrient-poor, unhealthy diets and a surge in overweight and obesity among children and adolescents, even in countries still grappling with child undernutrition,” it added.
Though Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa and North America rank in the top three regions for overweight prevalence among children and adolescents aged 0–19 years; East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and South Asia account for more than half of all children and adolescents with overweight globally (241 million out of 427 million).
Since 2000, the number of children and adolescents aged 5-19 years living with overweight has doubled from 194 million to 391 million.
It added that, however, in the South Asia region, which had the lowest prevalence of overweight in 2000, the prevalence increased almost fivefold by 2022.
“Since 2000, overweight has more than doubled in low- and middle-income countries, compared to a modest 1.2-fold increase in high-income countries. As a result, the gap in prevalence is narrowing, and low- and middle-income countries now account for 81 per cent of the global overweight burden, up from 66 per cent in 2000,” it added.
In 2022, 42 per cent of all children and adolescents aged 5–19 years lived with overweight and obesity (163 million out of 391 million), up from 30 per cent in 2000 (58 million out of 194 million).
“This is immensely concerning because obesity is more difficult to reverse than overweight and has a greater risk of serious health conditions,” it added.
Pointing out that inexpensive ultra-processed foods and beverages are flooding retail markets and infiltrating schools, it said that the global sales of these foods and drinks are rising sharply, driven by rapid growth in middle-income countries, where modern retail outlets, online grocery stores and food delivery apps are expanding rapidly, alongside traditional outlets.
“These ultra-processed foods and beverages tend to be relatively cheaper than fresh or minimally processed nutritious foods – due partly to agricultural subsidies that artificially lower the cost of key ingredients, such as corn, soy and wheat,” it added.
The report urged governments to take urgent steps, including front-of-pack labelling, regulating food advertising to children, taxes on unhealthy foods and sugar-sweetened beverages, price subsidies for healthy foods, restrictions on other food and drinks sold at school, and food reformation to reduce trans-fat.