Nutrition

Nutrition
Updated: 29 October 2007

Malnutrition remains a major concern to governments in Asia and the Pacific. Alarming facts show that:

• Three quarters of the world's underweight and stunted children are in Asia.
• More than half of the six million deaths of children under five years each year in developing Asia are underweight.
• Three quarters of those suffering from vitamin A, iodine, and iron deficiencies—mostly young children and their mothers—are in Asia.

Proper nutrition benefits families, and the nation as a whole. Among the most common types of community-based nutrition intervention are breastfeeding promotion, growth monitoring and promotion, complementary feeding, and supplementary feeding. Fortification is another approach. Food fortification adds minute quantities of vitamins and minerals to common staple foods, such as flour, cooking oil, fish sauce, while biofortification breeds food crops that are rich in bioavailable micronutrient.

Improved nutrition can improve the health, and raise the performance of children in school and later in life.