Malnutrition

Maryam Aminu was hardly surprised when the last of her six children was diagnosed with malnutrition in April for a second time. She was barely feeding the 18-month-old regularly, let alone with nutritious foods. Although the family in northwest Nigeria has struggled with economic hardship, their situation deteriorated after February, when her husband, Shehu Aminu, lost his job as a taxi driver due to a spike in the retail price of petrol caused by the war in Iran. "When she was diagnosed the second time, even though I suspected it, I was sad and angry because I knew why," Aminu said in the living area of their unvarnished two-bedroom house in the quiet town of Kware, Sokoto, as ash from the coal stove billowed into the room. "Times are tough, and the food is not consistent." Children relapsing into malnutrition has become an increasingly common occurrence in the state and across northern Nigeria, according to local health and aid workers, who cite knock-on effects from the Iran ...

This initiative, notably, has come amid the growing apprehension that modern high-yielding crop varieties are, in general, less nourishing than their older versions

NFHS-6 shows gains in child nutrition and healthcare access, but rising obesity and diabetes underscore the need for a more comprehensive public health strategy

Addressing undernutrition could prevent up to 2.3 million tuberculosis cases worldwide, representing 23.7 per cent of infections among adults in 2023, according to a modelling study published in The Lancet Global Health journal. India could have seen the highest reduction in tuberculosis (TB) cases if undernutrition was addressed, followed by Indonesia, the Philippines and Pakistan, researchers, including those from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, estimated. "We estimated that eliminating moderate-to-severe undernutrition could avert 14 million tuberculosis episodes globally, representing 14.6 per cent of global adult incidence in 2023, while eliminating all undernutrition could avert 2.3 million episodes, representing a reduction in global tuberculosis incidence of 23.7 per cent," the authors wrote. The findings highlight the urgent need to scale up population-level nutritional interventions, social and health benefits from which could extend beyond tuberculosis, ..

The Gujarat government on Saturday informed the assembly that more than 2 lakh children in 20 out of 34 districts in the state were malnourished and that it was taking various steps to improve the situation. Responding to a set of questions raised by Congress MLAs during Question Hour, Women and Child Development Minister Manisha Vakil informed that out of 2.05 lakh malnourished children recorded in 20 districts, nearly 1.69 lakh were 'underweight', while 36,805 fell in the category of 'severely underweight' as on January 2026. According to data tabled by Vakil, the tribal-dominated Panchmahal district in central Gujarat accounted for the highest number of malnourished children (20,762), followed by Banaskantha (19,391), Kheda (18,590), Sabarkantha (16,588), Dahod (16,388), Chhotaudepur (16,322), Narmada (8,881) and Mahisagar (7,838). While tribal-dominated Tapi district recorded the lowest number of malnourished children (4,424) among these 20 districts, the highly urbanized ...

High-yielding crops ended hunger, but often at a nutritional cost. New research shows modern grains lag traditional varieties, reviving the case for biofortification

To help prevent oxidative stress, people need to eat foods with antioxidants and limit their exposure to oxidants, particularly free radicals

After two years of war and dire food shortages, more than 54,600 children younger than 5 in Gaza may be acutely malnourished, with more than 12,800 severely affected, according to a new study by a United Nations agency. By early August, roughly 16 per cent of children ages 6 months to just under 5 years in Gaza were suffering from a life-threatening type of malnutrition known as acute wasting, including nearly 4 per cent with severe wasting, according to the analysis by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the primary health care provider to Palestinian refugees in the region. Wasting requires treatment with therapeutic food over several weeks and, sometimes, hospitalization. The study, published Wednesday in The Lancet medical journal, is the most comprehensive study of child hunger in the region to date, the authors said. It relied on screenings of nearly 220,000 children from dozens of health centres and medical sites in Gaza between January 202

Long overlooked and often misdiagnosed, Type 5 diabetes, caused by malnutrition-linked reduced insulin production, has finally gained official recognition

Environment, carbon emission, biodiversity and malnutrition are among the issues that remain neglected by certain groups of countries, according to a recent study that analysed the trajectories of 166 nations towards attaining sustainable development. In 2015, member states of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Aimed at achieving human progress, economic prosperity, and planetary health, the framework outlines 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), including no poverty, zero hunger, quality education and gender equality. Questions, however, remain as to how different nations navigate their own paths toward these goals, said an international team of researchers from different countries, including Australia, China and Israel. Their study, published in the journal Nature Communications, found a "polarised global landscape" with systematically neglected SDG targets, potentially leaving behind millions of people. "Our results reveal a polarised glob

Survey reveals low hunger intensity, yet millions face undernourishment and poor food quality

Gujarat continues to grapple with high malnutrition rate and widespread anaemia, despite receiving Rs 2,879 crore from the Centre under the Poshan Abhiyaan

Rural population has been grappling with decline in food and nutrition intake after the advent of the neo-liberal policies in the early 1990s with an estimated 80 per cent of them now having less than 2,200 calories per day, according to economist Utsa Patnaik. "The nutritional intake data is not there. But from whatever there is, by using certain approximations, I estimate that more than 80 per cent of the rural population has slipped below 2,200 calories per day intake," she said while delivering the second P Sundarayya memorial lecture on the topic 'Agrarian Distress, Worker-Peasant Alliance and Resistance to Corporate and Imperialist Designs in India' here on Wednesday evening. "That is what the data tell us. That is what the government's own data from the annual economic surveys and from the National Sample Service tell us. And of course, all these claims of declining mass poverty is completely false," she alleged. The accepted average calorie requirement in India is 2400 ...

Bill Gates, chairman of the Gates Foundation, has stated that India receives an “A” for its focus on solving the malnutrition problem

The annual report of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation projects that climate change could result in an additional 28 million children suffering from wasting by 2050

The pandemic and debt crises in poorer countries have hit health and education funding

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has said he would give India "an A" for its focus on solving the problem of malnutrition. "Well, India, for its income level, acknowledges that some of these nutritional indicators are weaker than it would like. That kind of frankness and focus on it, I think is very impressive," Gates told PTI in an interview. He said India is more focused on the issue than any other government, Gates said. It's using the public feeding system and the Midday Meal System to try and get fortified foods out, but it's still a huge opportunity," Gates said. "I would give India an A for focus on the problem, he said. Responding to a question on the occasion of the launch of the Gates Foundation's Goalkeepers Report 2024, Gates said: I think it probably would rate itself maybe a B for the education but with the real serious intent to do even better." The annual report tracks progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The underst

Govt must address malnutrition

Presently, Afghanistan witnesses a surge in the number of malnourished children seeking care at specialised clinics nationwide

Afghanistan's Taliban-appointed Ministry of Public Health said that the number of malnourished mothers and children in the country has slightly increased compared to past years