Posted on 08/22/2026 8:12:41 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
IN SOME PARTS of the West, children of healthy weight have become the exception. In poor countries, childhood obesity is spreading faster than ever before. The problem is not new: the percentage of overweight children around the world crept up in the 1980s, as junk food became a dietary staple. But the trend today is alarming. A report by UNICEF, the United Nations’ children’s agency, published on September 10th, found that the number of school-aged children who are obese is, for the first time, higher than those who are severely undernourished (see chart 1). One-fifth of children aged 5-19 are overweight; of them, half are obese.
UNICEF defines overweight as a body-mass index one standard deviation above the World Health Organisation’s median for healthy growth, and obese if it is more than two. In Niue and the Cook Islands nearly 40% of 5-19-year-olds are obese—the highest rates in the world (see map). The South Pacific also has some of the worst adult-obesity rates, fuelled by shifting diets and a culture that prizes size. America ranks in the top 20 countries for childhood obesity, with a rate of 20%. In Europe, Hungary leads with 15%.
Poor countries are particularly ill-equipped to cope. Health systems there were built to fight hunger, not obesity. Many babies are born underweight because of poor diets in pregnancy and scant antenatal care. That alters their metabolism and makes rapid weight gain, diabetes and other chronic diseases more likely in adulthood. In South America and parts of Africa and the Middle East the share of overweight children is already higher than in western Europe and is nearing the 45% seen in North America.
The reason is simple: cheap, heavily processed foods are now a daily part of children’s diets across the world, crowding out fresh fruits, vegetables and proteins. In a survey of 20 poor and middle-income countries, UNICEF found that in 13 more than half of infants aged 6-23 months had consumed sweet drinks or sugary foods the previous day. Even in Britain many ready-to-eat baby pouches marketed as healthy are far from it. In countries with lax regulation, the fare is worse. A study of hundreds of infant and toddler foods sold in seven South-East Asian countries found that half were ultra-processed, meaning they are laden with sugar, salt and ingredients not typically found in a home kitchen. A third contained additives that are not permitted under the Codex Alimentarius, the UN’s food-standards code.
But changing diets is hard. Ultra-processed foods are, on average, about 50% cheaper than fresh or minimally processed foods, according to the UN’s flagship report on food systems. A global survey of school meals in 2024 found that 25% of schools served processed meats, 21% served sweets, 19% served deep-fried food and 14% provided sugar-sweetened drinks. With many adults eating poorly, meals at home also pack lots of calories but lack healthy nutrients such as fibre, protein and vitamins.
Stronger rules that restrict the advertising and sales of unhealthy foods could help. So could subsidies to make good food cheaper. What children eat early shapes their tastes for life. Adult diets are habits fixed in childhood. Once formed, those tastes are hard to shift. ■
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For myself and my buddies, our summer days were spent on the local baseball diamonds and we got there by riding our bicycles with our gloves hanging from the handle bars and the bat laying across them.
Today, we never, ever, see kids playing ball by themselves.
The one kid on the left looks like is going to the hospital soon.
I see a lot of fat kids, with fat parents and it’s obvious there’s no discipline in anything they apparently do which I’m guessing is as little as possible.
I see tables at resteraunts with fat kids and fat parents all with their heads buried in a phone, no conversation and mouths full.
Wife and I are 71, we split a sandwich, burger or whatever when we eat out and we each get a salad. It’s not a money thing it’s way to much food served. We do lunch vice suppers when we eat out and never fast food crap. Wife is 5’4 110lb same as highschool when we got married 4 months later. I’m 6’1 195 up 10lbs from highschool. We work out and walk and no prescription drugs. Kids, spouses, grandkids all normal sizes. They eat healthy meals as do we and we cook home meals.
It’s a social thing in the US and free government crap and lazy people.
LOL
too funny
thanks for the link
Stop feeding them in school. We were not fat cuz we had to throw milk in a bowl of cereal and grab a peanut butter sandwich.
Look for those same areas to have an increase in colon cancer in the next 30-40 years.
About once a month I get trapped in the grocery store by a fat family on mobility scooters. Mom, dad, and two fat teens, all too obese to move under their own power and taking up the entire isle.
Among other reasons, people are fat because they're moving less and eating worse food and more of it. Lives have become far more sedentary and there's less real cooking going on at home, and I don't mean microwaving processed dinners.
Add to that, delicious things to eat are EVERYWHERE. Look at any commercial area in town - seems like one in three business are food related.
Food insecurity is the joke in the US.
It is parent laziness that doesn’t provide good nutritious meals.
I grew up when Mom’s cooked balanced, healthy meals - and we played outside for most of the day - not many fat kids, or adults on the block back then.
Back 20 years ago my son and other boys were playing pick up autumn football on their own. all about 12 years old. The men in town heard and organized a football team. And it became not much fun. And bench sitting. And yelling.
One of the reasons there is so much food related business is that there is nothing else one can start for a business. Dress shop? Shoe store? Hat shop? Repair shop? TV shop? Florist?
All gone or dying.
maybe stop feeding them free breakfast at school?
Expected, due to carb-loading our kids, specifically carbs derived from today’s Franken-Wheat.
...but we have drugs for it, so no big deal (one of the drugs, now getting very popular with kids, is insulin, by the way).
Meals are made from scratch. Not highly processed, factory-made.
Definitely seen that.. disgusting.
So much for the good parenting seal.
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