© Per Square Mile/Tim De Chant
Half of children in the reddest countries are dangerously underweight due to malnutrition.
Half of children in the reddest countries are dangerously underweight due to malnutrition.
In other words, this map depicts the percentage of children in each country who are dangerously underweight on account of malnutrition. (Quantifying just how underweight these children are is difficult without knowing the variation in weight in the study population.) Data are from 1990 to 2002 and countries in blue indicate no data was available.
© Per Square Mile/Tim De Chant
In parts of Sudan and Niger, half of all children suffer from malnutrition.
In parts of Sudan and Niger, half of all children suffer from malnutrition.
© Per Square Mile/Tim De Chant
Parts of Pakistan and India have proportions of underweight children as bad or worse than war-torn regions of Africa.
Parts of Pakistan and India have proportions of underweight children as bad or worse than war-torn regions of Africa.
...for the children of Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia are definitely not underweight but ideally weighted vis-a-vis physical structure and climatic conditions. Here, we eat more saturated fat, meats and less temperate grains such as wheat. In Thailand and Vietnam, a lot of people are still not affluent enough to afford processed foods and naturally stick to hawker styled cooking or home-cooking for daily meals. Conversely, many Chinese have now become overweight due to high levels of wheat flour consumption, sugar and of course processed foods as one of the largest processed foods producers in the world. In Shanghai alone, there are more Macdonald's and Haagen-Daz outlets in just this one city compared to an entire country like Vietnam!