Preventing Obesity and Improving Diets in Children
Priority actions to address a growing problem
Overweight and obesity presents a new threat to children living in East Asia and the Pacific. In 2000, less than 1 in 10 children in the region were overweight; today it is 1 in 4 and rising. The reason lies in the obesity-promoting environment that influences children’s diet and lifestyle: an environment that promotes the sale of ‘junk’ foods at low prices, bombards children with adverts and promotions for unhealthy food and drink, and provides fewer opportunities for physical activity. The impact is evident: a generation of children with unhealthy diets, taking little exercise, increasingly prone to depression, underperforming at school, and at greater risk of debilitating disease like diabetes later in life.
UNICEF in the East Asia and Pacific region is taking on this challenge and is working with government and partners to take action to address the obesity-promoting environment. In a series of blogs, UNICEF sets out the different actions underway.
The first blog entitled The Child Obesity Crisis describes the extent of the overweight and obesity and highlights how different aspects of children’s environments – food, economic, social and physical – affect the way that they eat and live their lives. The blog also provides four country landscape analyses [these can be found below] produced with UNICEF support that describe required actions so that children are able to eat, exercise, grow and develop into healthy and happy individuals.
The second blog on Reshaping Food Retail focuses on the crucial role of food retail marketing practices in shaping an environment that influences children’s dietary preferences, their food and drink choices, and family purchasing patterns. Indeed, UNICEF analyses of sales trends [these can be found below] demonstrate a rise in sales of highly processed food and drink containing excessive amounts of unhealthy fat, sugar and salt in different settings. In response, UNICEF and Deakin University have forged a three-year partnership informed by a rigorous evidence base that aims to reshape food retail environments for healthier diets in East Asia and Pacific. (The report can be downloaded here).
The third blog on Marketing Unhealthy Food to Children focuses on the promotion of highly processed and unhealthy food and drink and how this influences the desires, tastes, and eating habits of a new generation to the detriment of their health and well-being. A UNICEF study from the Philippines (the report can be downloaded here) and a UNICEF analysis in five countries (the report can be downloaded here) highlight digital marketing and the strategies being adopted to encourage children to consume food and drink that is not healthy. Governments need to take action as set out in a UNICEF evidence paper (the report can be downloaded here) by introducing mandatory legislation to restrict the marketing of unhealthy food and drink to children through all media channels.
Download the Euromonitor Analyses
Download the Landscape Analysis Policy Briefs
Download the Landscape Analysis Technical Reports
Download the Reports
