Fewer people are facing starvation, but nearly one in three people in the world is malnourished. However, obesity and adult diabetes is spreading globally, according to a report from the International Food Policy Research Institute.
The number of hungry people in the world fell, but obesity has risen between 2010 and 2014 every country in the world. The report calls adult obesity another form of malnutrition. One in 12 adults worldwide now has type 2 diabetes, according to the institute's Global Nutrition Report. Adult diabetes is increasing in 185 countries and has stabilized or gone down in only five.
More than 160 million children under age 5 are stunted because of a poor diet. This means that they are too short for their age because they did not get enough nutritious food. Another 50 million do not weigh enough for their height, a condition called wasting. In Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Pakistan, which are developing countries, the percentage of children under age 5 who are not stunted or wasted ranges from 43% to 48%. Forty-five percent of all deaths of children under age 5 are linked to malnutrition, the report said.
"Too often people think of malnutrition as just a problem of hungry kids in the poorest countries, but this report shows that malnutrition has many forms and affects all countries, rich and poor alike," said Dr. Corinna Hawkes, co-author of the report. "The coexistence of nutritional problems associated with extreme deprivation and obesity is the real face of malnutrition."
Globally, two billion people are not eating the proper amounts of vitamins and minerals, and thus face micronutrient malnutrition, while 1.9 billion adults are overweight or obese.
Childhood malnutrition will have a dangerous impact on future development in those countries with a fast-growing population. The children who do not reach their full physical or intellectual potential are the future adults in these countries.
You can read more at Global Nutrition Report.