One in 4 children under 5 years of age are severely deprived of nutritious diets, which can have lifelong consequences such as stunting, according to UNICEF. That’s 181 million children worldwide.
“This is an alarming reality,” said Linda Shaker Berbari, a nutrition specialist with UNICEF. “It means these children are not consuming a healthy diet that would allow them to grow to their potential and develop.”
UNICEF defines child food poverty as consuming at most two food groups daily — typically milk along with a starchy food such as rice, wheat, or maize. This deprivation of essential nutrients is tied to malnutrition and underdevelopment. A child in severe food poverty is up to 50% more likely to experience wasting, a life-threatening form of malnutrition, UNICEF says in a new report on the causes and impact of nutrition in early childhood, released Thursday.