Nutrition Facts

What is malnutrition?

Malnutrition – the state of being poorly nourished – is not merely a result of too little food, but of a combination of factors: insufficient protein, energy and micronutrients, frequent infections or disease, poor care and feeding practices, inadequate health services and unsafe water and sanitation.1

Child Malnutrition

Malnutrition affects children in several ways simultaneously. Although fewer children are undernourished than in the 1990s,

One child dies every six seconds from hunger and related causes according to UNICEF.
1 in 4 or 143 million under-five children in the developing world are still underweight for their age. Two thirds of these children live in Asia, and just over one quarter live in Africa according to UNICEF.
About 178 million children under five are stunted (low height for age) as a result of insufficient food, poor diet and diseases according to WHO.
An estimated 55 million children, or 10 percent of the world’s children, are wasted.2 Wasting is a severe form of malnutrition and demands emergency nutritional interventions. According to WHO, about 1.5 million children die each year due to wasting.
More than 60 percent of all children are not exclusively breastfed for the first six months. Inadequate breastfeeding practices, especially non-exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life, cause 1.4 million deaths and 10 percent of the disease burden in children under five years old.3

The 1,000 Days Window

Malnutrition’s most devastating impact is in the womb – when the fetus can fail to develop properly – and during the first years of a child’s life, when it can hamper physical and mental development.

Recent studies, including The Lancet series on maternal and child undernutrition, illustrate the strong evidence that adequate nutrition in utero and during the first two years of life is essential for formation of human capital. Read about GAIN Infant and Young Child Nutrition Program.
Undernourished children are more likely to achieve less academically and to have a lower economic status in adulthood.
Essential fats are among the nutrients that are crucial for healthy children. They are especially important for normal fetal and infant growth and development, in particular for brain development and good eye vision. As the body does not develop essential fatty acids naturally, infants must get them from food.

Economist Costs

Countries may lose two to three percent of their GDP as a result of iron, iodine and zinc deficiencies.4
In China, vitamin and mineral deficiencies represent an annual GDP loss of up to US$ 5 billion according to the World Bank.
In May 2008 the Copenhagen Consensus, a panel of economists including Nobel Laureates, determined that providing micronutrients in the form of iodized salt, vitamin A capsules and iron-fortified flour for 80 percent of the world’s malnourished would cost US$ 347 million a year. The group calculated that the investment would yield US$ 5 billion from avoided deaths, improved earnings and reduced healthcare spending.

Nutrition and the MDGs

Investment in nutrition, especially of women and children, will contribute significantly to achieving Millennium Development Goals, namely the health MDGs (1, 4, 5 and 6).

Addressing malnutrition positively impacts maternal and child health outcomes (MDGs 4 and 5). Read how GAIN works towards acheiving the Millenium Development Goals.
People who are well nourished are more likely to be healthy (MDGs 4, 5 and 6), productive (MDG 1) and able to learn (MDG 2). Good nutrition benefits families, their communities and the world as a whole.