Asian children are becoming increasingly under-nourished or obese, a new report says.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) joint report was released Monday.
The two agencies call for better regulation of junk food and a limit on sugary drinks for children.
They also call for action against malnutrition. A lack of food has stunted children —
or hurt their development – who live in poverty. The report says the costs of child malnutrition and obesity in Southeast Asia are great.
These problems are seen in the middle-income countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.
In Indonesia, the report says, child malnutrition hurts child development and leads to diseases that cost $248 billion a year.
Dorothy Foote is a UNICEF regional nutritional specialist. She said the problems are a “burgeoning crisis”— or one that is growing.
It covers both child nutrition and the general population, she said. “At UNICEF we are particularly concerned about children, but in general, we do have a crisis.
That's going to affect not only families and communities but also governments and societies, that the costs of the ‘double burden' are tremendous, ” Foote told VOA.