Politics
Global Hunger and Obesity Are Worsening Due to Virus Fallout
- UN says almost a 10th of the planet was undernourished in 2019
- Adult obesity has become a ‘global pandemic in its own right’
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Hunger and malnourishment are increasing around the world as the coronavirus crisis pushes more people into poverty and limits access to healthy diets, according to the United Nations.
Almost 690 million people were undernourished last year, the most since 2009, and the pandemic could tip as many as 132 million people into chronic hunger by the end of this year, the UN said in a report. At the same time, obesity has been on the rise as healthy foods remain out of reach for billions of people, a problem that will be compounded by the economic fallout from the virus.