What Children Eat in Developing Countries: Diet in the Etiology of Undernutrition?

Abstract

We live in a world of paradoxes: one half of the world is overweight or obese with abundant access to food and the other half undernourished due to poor food access. It has been estimated that nearly 36% of children in Asia are stunted. Worldwide, approximately 1 in 4 children under the age of 5 years shows stunted growth, making the number of stunted children to 155 million; 52 million children under 5 years are wasted, of which 17 million are severely wasted. Given the wide-scale nature of global malnutrition and its long-term consequences, why has this scar in our consciousness not being addressed systematically? The Asian enigma underscores the observation that unlike other regions of the world, economic growth does not appear to keep pace with the eradication of undernutrition. Exclusive breastfeeding is capable of maintaining adequate growth in infants in the first 3-6 months of life. Human breast milk contains the lowest protein content than any other homoeothermic animal. Despite the very low protein content of the breast milk, the protein content is sufficient for adequate infant growth. Protein deficiency is, therefore, not the cause of undernutrition in children. Most weaning foods in developing countries are of very low energy density, high viscosity, and poor palatability. This paper suggests that it is the poor energy density of weaning food that is in part responsible for the stunting and wasting pandemic seen in developing countries. Using the concept of developing ready-to-use therapeutic food, the paper proposes an urgent need to develop high energy, low viscosity, and palatable foods. Processed foods at the village community level or on a large scale will remain one of the solutions to produce palatable and energy-dense foods. Without this intervention, our world will continue to see the ravage of malnutrition which plagues our conscience.