Thursday, April 2, 2009

Malnutrition

foodstuffs are rising across the globe, and with them the spectre of hunger on a massive scale. But where hunger can be battled with less than perfect solutions -- as in Haiti, where some people must resort to eating mud cakes -- the long-term effect of dietary compromise cannot.

"What happens when food becomes expensive, is that families cut down to two meals or even one meal a day. Then the quality of food is also sacrificed," said UNICEF's Senior Advisor on Nutrition, Flora Sibanda Mulder. "Household insecurity, food insecurity will cause acute malnutrition."

As the world braces for a so-called 'silent tsunami' caused by food inflation, UNICEF is prepared to continue fulfilling its mandate of treating the most critical cases -- the 20 million children under the age of five suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

http://www.unicef.org/nutrition/index_44186.html