For the first time, children with obesity outnumber those who are underweight across the globe, according to a new report on child nutrition from UNICEF, a United Nations agency.
It’s a dramatic but unsurprising milestone, said Johanna Ralston, the chief executive of the World Obesity Federation. Since 2000, the share of underweight children has dropped to 9.2 percent from 13 percent, while global childhood obesity rates have climbed. One in 10 children now has obesity, and one in five is overweight.
While Ms. Ralston hopes the new report will galvanize action at the upcoming U.N. General Assembly, multinational organizations and governments around the world are “phenomenally underprepared” to tackle the childhood obesity crisis, she said.
Part of the problem is a longstanding and false assumption that poor countries struggle only with hunger, while rich countries face obesity alone. But since 2000, the number of overweight children has more than doubled in low- and middle-income countries, compared with a 20 percent increase in high-income countries. In 2022, low- and middle-income countries accounted for 81 percent of overweight children, according to the report.
The risks of obesity tend to build over time, since the disease is tied to more than 200 other conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and various forms of cancer. Childhood obesity can be a gateway to decades of poor health and even early death, said Dr. Sriram Machineni, an obesity medicine specialist at Montefiore Einstein Medical Center in the Bronx.
Sedentary lifestyles, chronic stress and genetic risk contribute to rising childhood obesity rates. But the report specifically highlights the global shift in “food environments,” as cheap, ultraprocessed foods, pushed by relentless advertising, have flooded children’s lives. These foods tend to be calorie-dense, with combinations of sugar, salt and fat rarely found in nature, making them almost addictive and easy to overconsume, Dr. Machineni said.
A 2024 poll included in the report found that, across 171 countries, three in four teenagers and young adults had seen advertisements for sugary drinks, snacks or fast food in the week prior. Sixty-five percent of the respondents in low-income countries and 68 percent in conflict-ridden countries were exposed to these ads in their schools, on social media feeds, at sports events and in cartoons.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary, released a report on American childhood health this week that underlined the dangers of childhood obesity and ultraprocessed foods. The report said the administration would “explore the development of potential industry guidelines,” but didn’t say it would compel the food industry to stop marketing junk food to children, leaving many food policy experts disappointed.
The UNICEF report notes that the global food and beverage industry has used its power and influence to outmaneuver governments, stalling regulations through long delays, deflecting blame onto children and silencing critics with intimidation and biased research.
Together, these dynamics have created a crisis that resists simple fixes. Clinical trials and public health efforts often fall short in preventing childhood obesity, and once established, obesity is hard to reverse.
In low- and middle-income countries, the challenge is even greater, since obesity is rarely measured or addressed in primary-care settings, given limited training and treatment options, Ms. Ralston said.
In high-income countries, children from poorer households, the report says, are more likely to live in food deserts (areas without much healthy food) or food swamps (areas saturated with unhealthy food). In low-income countries, obesity tends to be more common in wealthier households. While starvation continues to be an issue around the world, many communities are struggling with both hunger and obesity, which is sometimes called the double burden of malnutrition, Ms. Ralston said. Children might have access to cheap calories, but not nutritious foods.
In the report, Catherine Russell, the executive director of UNICEF, wrote that “no country has a comprehensive set of measures to protect children from unhealthy food.” She called on governments to ban junk food from schools, subsidize healthy options and curb the outsized influence of the food and beverage industry in policymaking.
While these changes are much-needed, Ms. Ralston said, bending the curve on childhood obesity would require an even more comprehensive approach, including expanding physical activity and increasing access to medical care.
“Obesity is everywhere and nowhere,” she said: It’s widespread and devastating to children’s health, yet chronically overlooked and underfunded.
“It keeps falling between these gaps,” Ms. Ralston added.
Simar Bajaj covers health and wellness.
The post For the First Time, More Children Are Obese Than Underweight appeared first on New York Times.
