Obesity has overtaken undernutrition as the most widespread form of malnutrition among children and adolescents worldwide, the UN children’s agency UNICEF said in a report released Tuesday.

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The report, Feeding Profit: How Food Environments are Failing Children, finds that nearly one in ten people aged five to 19 is now living with obesity. The epidemic, UNICEF warns, is being driven by the growing availability of ultra-processed foods and aggressive marketing campaigns — even in countries still contending with undernutrition.

“Today, when we talk about malnutrition, we are no longer just talking about underweight children,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said. “Ultra-processed food is increasingly replacing fruits, vegetables and protein at a time when nutrition plays a critical role in children’s growth, cognitive development and mental health.”

Between 2000 and 2022, the proportion of underweight youths fell from 13 percent to 10 percent, according to data from 190 countries. Over the same period, the number of overweight children and adolescents more than doubled, rising from 194 million to 391 million.

Obesity rates rose even more sharply. In 2000, 3 percent of children worldwide — around 33 million — were obese. By 2022, the figure had reached 8 percent, or 163 million. UNICEF says this year marks “a historic turning point,” with global obesity prevalence at 9.4 percent, surpassing underweight at 9.2 percent. In total, the report estimates 188 million young people are now obese.

UNICEF attributes the trend not to family choices but to “unethical” business practices. “Children are being bombarded by … unhealthy food marketing of junk foods,” UNICEF legal nutrition expert Katherine Shats told AFP, pointing to widespread exposure in schools to sugary drinks and salty snacks. The agency stresses that the problem lies in a failure to protect children’s food environments, not with families themselves.

While obesity has long been highest in wealthier nations — 27 percent in Chile and 21 percent in the United States — the gap with low- and middle-income countries has narrowed sharply. Rates are soaring in some Pacific islands where imported processed foods are displacing traditional diets. In many countries, the twin burdens of undernutrition and obesity now coexist.

UNICEF is urging governments to act through binding measures such as restrictions on junk food advertising, taxes on sugary drinks and unhealthy products, and policies supporting fresh food production and access.

The agency warns that unless governments regulate food environments, children worldwide will continue to face a worsening epidemic of obesity, now the most common form of malnutrition.

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