Obesity as a Major Malnutrition Issue

Obesity as a Major Malnutrition Issue

"The Changing Face of Malnutrition
Reported by Chris Burslem, International Food Policy Research Institute, October 2004

For as long as the world has known it, malnutrition has been associated with hunger, conjuring up images of gaunt and prematurely aged children and adults. In 2004, malnutrition is still very much with us, and it is taking on a new form as well.

To be sure, there are still far too many hungry and underfed people--1.1 billion at last count. But over one billion people are now overweight and obese.

Perhaps most surprisingly, these aren't all cheeseburger-eating Westerners. Most are Asians, Pacific islanders, and Latin Americans, in particular urban women, living in developing countries. Usually poor, they are succumbing in alarming numbers to the misleadingly named 'diseases of affluence'--obesity, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes--that arise from changing diets, lifestyles, and economies.

Chronic non-communicable diseases now cause close to 60 percent of all deaths worldwide. Surprisingly, nearly 80 percent of these deaths occur in developing countries.

Overweight and obesity, the most glaring outward sign of the changing face of malnutrition in developing countries, increase the chances of a person falling prey to the other non-communicable diseases.

Nutritionists working in developing countries once thought that if people obtained enough energy in their diets, they would obtain enough minerals, vitamins, and other micronutrients. But that is clearly not the case. Malnutrition is not simply caused by a lack of food overall, but by a lack of high-quality foods such as whole grains, fiber, fruits, and vegetables. Diets can also be injurious to health if they contain an excess of components such as saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar.

"Sadly, it seems that we have somehow managed to bypass good health, moving from hunger to obesity in a single generation in many parts of the world," says Marie Ruel, interim director of IFPRI's Food Consumption and Nutrition Division.

Perhaps most worrying is that obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases are reaching epidemic levels in countries that are still struggling to eliminate hunger and poverty, encumbering them with a double health burden.

In some cases, undernutrition and obesity can even be found under the same roof. The prevalence of households with both overweight and underweight members in Brazil, for example, stands at 11 percent. In Asia it ranges between 3 and 15 percent, with households typically containing an underweight child and an overweight, nonelderly adult.

This one-two health punch has the potential to cause an economic and human disaster in countries whose medical systems are woefully unprepared to deal with diseases requiring long-term care."

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