Third of the 700 million children around the world are undernourished or overweight1Video© firstpost.com

Third of the 700 million children around the world are undernourished or overweight

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A third of the world's nearly 700 million children under five years old are undernourished or overweight and face lifelong health problems as a consequence, according to a grim UN assessment of childhood nutrition released Tuesday.

"If children eat poorly, they live poorly," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, unveiling the Fund's first State of the World's Children report since 1999. "We are losing ground in the fight for healthy diets."

Problems that once existed at opposite ends of the wealth spectrum have today converged in poor and middle-income countries, the report showed.