Malnutrition among children remains a persistent problem around the world. This publication aims to map the challenges within the global landscape of childhood nutrition and considers the importance of nutrition both prior to conception and in children beyond two years of age. Session I provides an updated picture of malnutrition around the world, the recent progress that has been made in eliminating malnutrition in all its forms and several data limitations to track such progress. The role of milk in early life is covered in session II. The chapters describe different aspects of cow’s milk and the possible role of optimized plant proteins as an alternative to dairy ingredients in treating children with severe acute malnutrition. Session III considers the ramifications of environmental constraints to healthy child growth. The chapters cover the issue of how persistent gut damage and systemic inflammation can precipitate malnutrition as well as the putative effects of alterations in the gut microbiota. This overview of diverse issues is relevant to the epidemiology, biology of nutrition in early life, programmatic implications, and future directions.

The early child period is considered the most important developmental phase throughout the lifespan. The 95th Nestlé Nutrition Institute Workshop explored in some detail the current scientific research, challenges, and opportunities of cementing a healthy foundation for life in toddlers and young children. The workshop brought together experts in the areas of health care, public health, and developmental science. The first session focused on the nutritional challenges in toddlers and young children across the globe, such as overweight and obesity. The theme of the second session elucidated the journey from infancy to toddlerhood and the role of nutrition in it, focusing social aspects. And finally, the third session aimed to explain the steps of motor skill development and the role of physical activities and nutrition in cognitive development and learning abilities of a child. The key issues offer valuable insights for health care providers, policy makers, and researchers on how appropriate nutrition, nurturing caregiving, and environment can influence the development and health of children up to 5 years of age.

Understanding the causes of anemia is critical to inform appropriate strategies to prevent and treat anemia, particularly to reduce the risk of anemia and the burden of disease. The strength of this book lies in its cross-disciplinary nature. This publication summarizes the current state of evidence on the multifactorial causes of anemia, with a specific focus on nutritional anemia. The chapter authors are leading experts in nutrition and global health. The introductory chapters provide an overview of the global burden of anemia prevalence, the economic implications and functional consequences of anemia, and the significance of these factors to guide policy and programs. Subsequent chapters provide current evidence on iron and other micronutrient metabolism and homeostasis in regards to anemia, the multifactorial contributors to anemia (e.g. infection and genetics), and the interactions between nutrients that may contribute to anemia. The summarizing chapters detail program and policy approaches to treat, prevent and reduce anemia in the global context. Nutritional Anemia is a comprehensive resource for those involved in global health and nutrition policy, strategy, programming, or research, and serves as a guide for how government, NGO, and international agencies can effectively treat, prevent and reduce anemia globally.

Nutrition, Health and Disease Nutrition, Health and Disease In this newly revised third edition of Nutrition, Health and Disease, prominent researcher and Professor of Human Nutrition Simon Langley-Evans delivers an easy-to-read and student-friendly textbook on the changing demands for nutrients made by the body throughout the human lifespan. Thorough introductions to lifespan nutrition, maternal nutrition prior to conception, pregnancy, and the relationship between fetal nutrition and disease later in life Practical discussions of lactation and infant feeding, nutrition during childhood, nutrition during adolescence, and nutrition in the adult years Detailed examination of contemporary evidence of the relationship between diet, body weight, and the major nutrition-related diseases: cancer, heart disease and diabetes Exploration of vegetarian, vegan, and other alternative diets, as well as dieting for weight loss in adults, gender and nutrition, macro- and micronutrients, and a background on nutritional epidemiology Access to an updated student companion website with additional resources Perfect for nutrition and dietetics students, as well as newly qualified nutrition and dietetics professionals, this foundational textbook will also earn a place on the bookshelves of other healthcare students and professionals who seek a one-stop reference on the impact that nutrition has on health and disease.

In recent years, the world has seen unprecedented attention and political commitment to addressing malnutrition. Milestones such as the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, the Lancet Maternal and Child Nutrition Series, and the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) have marked the rapid rise of nutrition on the global policy and research agenda. These developments reverse years of relative neglect for nutrition. Undernutrition is a global challenge with huge social and economic costs. It kills millions of young children annually, stunts growth, erodes child development, reduces the amount of schooling children attain, and increases the likelihood of their being poor as adults, if they survive. Stunting persists through a lifetime and beyond—underweight mothers are more likely to give birth to underweight children, perpetuating undernutrition across generations. Undernutrition reduces global gross domestic product by US$1.4–$2.1 trillion a year—the size of the total economy of Africa south of the Sahara.

New evidence this year corroborates the rise in world hunger observed in this report last year, sending a warning that more action is needed if we aspire to end world hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. Updated estimates show the number of people who suffer from hunger has been growing over the past three years, returning to prevailing levels from almost a decade ago. Although progress continues to be made in reducing child stunting, over 22 percent of children under five years of age are still affected. Other forms of malnutrition are also growing: adult obesity continues to increase in countries irrespective of their income levels, and many countries are coping with multiple forms of malnutrition at the same time – overweight and obesity, as well as anaemia in women, and child stunting and wasting.

At the 2013 Nutrition for Growth Summit in London, 96 signatories (governments, civil society organizations, donors, United Nations’ agencies, and businesses) agreed to support the creation of an annual report on global nutrition that would be authored by an independent expert group, in partnership with a large number of contributors. The first edition of this report, the Global Nutrition Report 2014, puts a spotlight on worldwide progress by the 193 member countries of the United Nations in improving their nutrition status, identifies bottlenecks to change, highlights opportunities for action, and contributes to strengthened nutrition accountability on country and global levels.

This document summarizes published and grey literature on conceptual framework on the link between child nutrition and economic growth, determinants of child undernutrition, types of investments to enhance maternal and child nutrition, and linkages between urbanization and child nutrition. Several in-sights emerge from the review. First, and despite progresses over the last several decades, maternal and child malnutrition is still prevalent in developing countries and the progress has been uneven. While the percentage of chronically malnourished (stunted) children declined across the developing world, the number of stunted children in Africa increased due to slower reduction in stunting prevalence and population growth. Many developing countries are experiencing the coexistence of different forms of malnutrition including undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, and overnutrition. Second, child undernutrition, especially stunting during the first 1,000 days of life, has several short- and long-term effects on individuals and economies that include impaired cognitive and non-cognitive development, poor educational performance, low productivity and earnings, and higher healthcare costs. Third, the determinants of child undernutrition are broadly classified as the immediate determinants including dietary intake and diseases; the underlying determinants that include household food security, quality of care and household living environment, and access to healthcare; and the basic determinants that include access to productive resources, stock of capital, as well as socioeconomic, political and cultural factors. Investments to enhance child nutrition can target either the immediate determinants (known as nutrition-specific investments) or the underlying determinants (known as nutrition-sensitive investments). Fourth, the effect of urbanization on child nutrition is mostly determined by the extent to which urban settlements offer their residents with better economic opportunities (e.g., better paying jobs and markets for nutritious food) and services (e.g., healthier living environments). Fifth, given the multilayer causes of child undernutrition, a multi-sectoral approach is needed to address the various determinants of undernutrition to improve maternal nutrition, promote optimal infant and young child feeding practices, enhance household food security, as well as improve healthy living environment and access to quality health care.