A child sits on the gym floor during the Shapedown programme for overweight adolescents and children in Aurora, Colorado. Obesity has skyrocketed among children and adolescents globally. Photo: JOHN MOORE/Getty Images North America/AFP
Obesity has skyrocketed among children and adolescents bombarded by “unethical” marketing of junk food, outpacing undernourishment to become the leading form of malnutrition worldwide for the first time among those age five to 19, Unicef warned recently.
In a dire report, the United Nations children’s agency projected that nearly one in 10 individuals within that age group will be living with the chronic disease in 2025, fuelled by easy availability of ultra-processed foods “even in countries still grappling with child undernutrition.”
