Turning the tide on childhood overweight in East Asia and the Pacific
Building better food environments for children
Highlights
Childhood overweight in East Asia and the Pacific has doubled since 2000, with more than 113 million children now affected — one in four of all children living with overweight worldwide. Obesity among children aged 5–19 years is now twice as common as underweight, placing the region at the epicentre of a global nutrition crisis.
Turning the Tide on Childhood Overweight in East Asia and the Pacific: Building Better Food Environments for Children, details how food environments dominated by ultra-processed products, aggressive marketing, and weak regulation are driving this alarming trend. It also highlights progress already underway — from marketing restrictions in Thailand and sugar-sweetened beverage taxes in Viet Nam, to child-friendly retail pilots in China and youth-led advocacy across the region.
The report calls for urgent government action to transform food environments: mandatory front-of-pack labelling, comprehensive restrictions on unhealthy food marketing, stronger school food standards, sugar-sweetened beverage taxes, and platforms to amplify young people’s voices.
