Torrens and colleagues [42] found that pre- and periconceptional
undernutrition result in vascular reactivity changes in adult offspring that are vascular bed dependent.
Undernutrition decreases immune defences, making an individual more susceptible to infection.
According to a report by UNICEF, 20 percent of children under five years of age suffer from wasting due to acute
undernutrition, and more than one third of the world's children who are wasted are from India.
This latest Lancet series updates, with extensive new data, the contribution
undernutrition in its various forms makes to child mortality and morbidity.
According to the study, Egypt loses "significant sums of money each year as a result of child
undernutrition through increased healthcare costs, additional burdens to the education system and lower productivity."
Some 400 million will be spent on boosting nutrition through specific programmes in the health sector, and the other 3.1 billion will be invested in making sure programmes in other areas, such as agriculture, education, water and social protection, do more to reduce
undernutrition. This financial commitment will allow the Commission to reach the 2025 target announced last year: using EU-funded programmes to support partner countries in reducing, by seven million, the number of stunted children under the age of five by 2025.
To help countries close these policy gaps, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a consolidated package of 24 Essential Nutrition Actions, which outline how countries can improve their peoples' nutritional status by preventing both
undernutrition and overweight.
More than one quarter of the world's children younger than five are stunted-that is, their growth has been severely and irreversibly impaired by chronic
undernutrition during a crucial developmental period.
(2) The report does not cover the impact of food insecurity or
undernutrition on women's health outcomes in any detail.
Contributed by nutrition, food science, and various other specialists from North America, Europe, India, and Australia, the 73 chapters also address nutrition monitoring in the US; dietary standards and guidelines across countries; the role of United Nations agencies in establishing international dietary standards; the emergence of diet-related chronic diseases in developing countries; food insecurity, hunger, and
undernutrition; public nutrition in humanitarian crises; foodborne infections and food safety; allergies and intolerances; food biofortification; and bioactive components in foods and supplements for health promotion.
Anthropogenic climate change is projected to reduce cereal yields and food security and therefore to undermine future efforts to reduce child
undernutrition. But models are needed to better measure the potential impacts of climate change on population health.
The highly fortified, locally-produced foods designed to tackle
undernutrition in young children, will also be distributed in flood-hit areas.