Editing Human nutrition (section)

=== Child malnutrition ===
{{Main|Undernutrition in children|Childhood obesity}}
According to UNICEF, in 2011, 101 million children across the globe were underweight and one in four children, 165 million, were stunted in growth.<ref name="ENA1">UNICEF, WHO, World Bank. UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Joint child malnutrition estimates. New York, Geneva & Washington DC, UNICEF, WHO & World Bank, 2012 ([https://web.archive.org/web/20110605204517/http://www.who.int/nutgrowthdb/estimates/en/index.html], accessed 27 March 2013)</ref> Simultaneously, there are 43 million children under five who are overweight or obese.<ref name="Essential Nutrition Actions" /> Nearly 20 million children under five suffer from severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition requiring urgent treatment.<ref name="Essential Nutrition Actions" /> According to estimations at [[UNICEF]], [[hunger]] will be responsible for 5.6 million deaths of children under the age of five this year.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> These all represent significant public health emergencies.<ref name="GNP">WHO (2013). Global Nutrition Policy. Report of a WHO Expert Committee. Geneva, World Health Organization. http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/84408/1/9789241505529_eng.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131225054022/http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/84408/1/9789241505529_eng.pdf |date=2013-12-25 }}</ref> This is because proper maternal and child nutrition has immense consequences for survival, acute and chronic disease incidence, normal growth, and economic productivity of individuals.<ref name="Maternal undernutrition">{{cite journal | vauthors=Black RE, Victora CG, Walker SP, Bhutta ZA, Christian P, de Onis M, Ezzati M, Grantham-McGregor S, Katz J, Martorell R, Uauy R | title=Maternal and child undernutrition and overweight in low-income and middle-income countries | journal=Lancet | volume=382 | issue=9890 | pages=427–451 | date=August 2013 | pmid=23746772 | doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60937-X | author12=Maternal Child Nutrition Study Group | s2cid=12237910}}</ref>

Childhood [[malnutrition]] is common and contributes to the [[Disease burden|global burden of disease]].<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors=Murray CJ, Lopez AD | title=Global mortality, disability, and the contribution of risk factors: Global Burden of Disease Study | journal=Lancet | volume=349 | issue=9063 | pages=1436–42 | date=May 1997 | pmid=9164317 | doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(96)07495-8 | s2cid=2569153}}</ref> Childhood is a particularly important time to achieve good nutrition status, because poor nutrition has the capability to lock a child in a vicious cycle of disease susceptibility and recurring sickness, which threatens cognitive and social development.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Undernutrition and bias in access to food and health services leaves children less likely to attend or perform well in school.<ref name="Progress for Children" />