More than one-fifth of school children in the country are suffering from malnutrition, said the Secretary to the Ministry of Health, Specialist Dr. Anil Jasinghe.
Commenting further, he said
“According to this survey, when we take children under 5 years of age and children over 5 years of age, our malnutrition, stunting is 10.1%. Wasting is 8.1%. Underweight is 16.1%. Overweight is a very small level of 0.5%. This shows that about one-fifth of our children are suffering from malnutrition.
In such a country, children become obese when they grow up and reach young and middle age. Malnutrition in childhood translates into obesity. Obesity becomes 47% of women and 30% of men in adults, but it becomes 15% of women and 6% of men.”
He said this while participating in a media briefing held at the Health Promotion Bureau in conjunction with National Nutrition Month.
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