{"id":134414,"date":"2025-09-11T04:36:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T04:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/134414\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T04:36:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T04:36:10","slug":"children-across-south-asia-face-escalating-nutrition-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/134414\/","title":{"rendered":"Children across South Asia face escalating nutrition crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/7a3f3ca9b5fd057fdcd3b4abf130afa1.jpg\"\/>Children are seen on a boat holding Rohingya refugees as it anchors off the coast of Labuhan Haji in southern Aceh province, Indonesia, on Oct 22, 2024. (PHOTO \/ AFP)<\/p>\n<p>DHAKA &#8211; Children across South Asia face an escalating nutrition crisis, with millions suffering from undernourishment, anaemia and obesity, according to a report released by the United Nations Children&#8217;s Fund (UNICEF) here Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>UNICEF warns that unless urgent action is taken, the futures of millions of children will be at risk.<\/p>\n<p>UNICEF&#8217;s new report &#8220;Feeding Profit: How Food Environments are Failing Children&#8221; finds that the number of children aged 5-19 living with overweight has increased fivefold to 70 million in South Asia since 2000.<\/p>\n<p>ALSO READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinadailyhk.com\/hk\/article\/603354#UNICEF:-33m-Bangladeshi-children&#039;s-schooling-disrupted-by-climate-crises-in-2024-2025-01-26\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UNICEF: 33m Bangladeshi children&#8217;s schooling disrupted by climate crises in 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While 48 percent of the school-going adolescents in the region reported that their schools offer food services, such as canteens or tuck shops, the quality of the food available is a major concern.<\/p>\n<p>Unhealthy options, including packaged snacks (61 percent), fast foods (55 percent), and sugar-sweetened beverages (55 percent), were reported as disturbingly common.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, in Bangladesh, UNICEF said this pattern was particularly pronounced.<\/p>\n<p>The report revealed that packaged and fast foods are more prevalent than healthier alternatives, such as freshly cooked meals, fresh vegetables, and fruits.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinadailyhk.com\/hk\/article\/340159#Actions-urged-to-protect-kids-in-world&#039;s-troubled-spots-2023-07-11\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Actions urged to protect kids in world&#8217;s troubled spots<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This trend is a key contributor to the rising public health challenge of childhood overweight and obesity.<\/p>\n<p>While only 8 percent of children in Bangladesh are currently living with overweight, the easy accessibility of unhealthy foods in a critical environment like schools poses a significant risk to future health outcomes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Children are seen on a boat holding Rohingya refugees as it anchors off the coast of Labuhan Haji&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,502,137,1836,92802,92801],"class_list":["post-134414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-children","tag-health","tag-public-health","tag-south-asia","tag-unicef"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}