Abstract: . . .  with low per capita GNP (figure 5). In Mauritania, more than 40 percent of mothers are overweight, while at the same time more than 30 percent children are under- weight. Furthermore, as many as 60 percent of households with an under- weight person also had an overweight person, demonstrating that underweight and overweight coexist not only in the same countries but also in the same households. In Guatemala, stunted children and over- 7 OVERVIEW 00-DID-Nut-fin.qxd 10/25/05 3:18 PM Page 7 Page 33 8 REPOSITIONING NUTRITION Figure 4 Trends in obesity among children under age five Source: SCN (2004). Note: Estimates are based on WHO regions. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 Africa Asia LAC Developing 0 4 8 12 16 20 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 Africa Asia LAC Developing Prevalence of overweight (%) No. of overweight children (million) Figure 5 Maternal overweight rates across regions Source: Author’s calculations using data from measuredhs.com. 0 20 40 60 80 0 10 20 30 40 50 % maternal . . .
. . .  what food or feeding practices are best for their children or them- selves, and because people cannot easily tell when their children are becom- ing malnourished, since faltering growth rates and micronutrient deficiencies are not usually visible to the untrained eye. The need to correct these “infor- mational asymmetries” is another argument for government intervention (box 1). And governments should intervene because improved nutrition is a public good, benefiting everybody; for example, better nutrition  . . .
. . .  Paraguay St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Vincent Suriname Trinidad and Tobago Uruguay MENA (2) Djibouti Lebanon SAR (2) Afghanistan Bhutan Deteriorating status (18%) AFR (13) Niger Burkina Faso Cameroon Comoros Ethiopia Guinea Lesotho Mali Senegal* Sudan Tanzania* Togo Zambia EAP (2) Mongolia Myanmar ECA (4) Albania Azerbaijan Russian Federation Serbia and Montenegro LAC (3) Argentina Costa Rica Panama MENA (2) Iraq Yemen, Rep. of SAR (2) Maldives Nepal Some improvement, but not on track AFR (14) Central African Rep. Congo, DR Côte d’Ivoire Eritrea Gabon Ghana Kenya Madagascar Malawi Mozambique Nigeria Rwanda Sierra Leone Uganda EAP (5) Cambodia Lao PDR Phillippines ECA (0) LAC (4) El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua MENA (1) Morocco SAR (4) Bangladesh* India Pakistan Sri Lanka Source: Author’s calculations. See also technical annex 5.6. Note: All calculations are based on 1990–2002 trend data from the WHO Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutri- tion (as of April 2005). Countries . . .
--3000,3,500,2755,55095