Editing Human nutrition (section)

== International food insecurity and malnutrition ==
{{further|Underweight|Food security|Epidemiology of malnutrition}}
According to UNICEF, South Asia has the highest levels of underweight children under five, followed by sub-Saharan Africans nations, with Industrialized countries and Latin nations having the lowest rates.<ref name="Progress for Children" />

=== Industrialized countries ===
According to [[UNICEF]], the [[Commonwealth of Independent States]] has the lowest rates of [[stunted growth|stunting]] and [[wasting]], at 14 percent and 3 percent.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> The nations of Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Lithuania and Sweden have the lowest prevalence of low [[birthweight]] children in the world- at 4%.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Proper prenatal nutrition is responsible for this small prevalence of low birthweight infants.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> However, low birthweight rates are increasing, due to the use of [[fertility drugs]], resulting in multiple births, women bearing children at an older age, and the advancement of technology allowing more pre-term infants to survive.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Industrialized nations more often face malnutrition in the form of over-nutrition from excess calories and non-nutritious carbohydrates, which has contributed greatly to the public health epidemic of obesity.<ref name="P4C48" /> Disparities, according to gender, geographic location and socio-economic position, both within and between countries, represent the biggest threat to child nutrition in industrialized countries. These disparities are a direct product of social inequalities and [[social inequalities]] are rising throughout the industrialized world, particularly in Europe.<ref name="Progress for Children" />

=== North America ===

==== United States ====
In the United States, 2% of children are underweight, with under 1% [[stunted growth|stunted]] and 6% are [[wasting]].<ref name="Progress for Children" />
[[File:New York National Guard Assisting Volunteers.jpg|thumb|New York National Guard Assisting Volunteers packing turkeys for families facing food insecurity]]
[[Dietitian]]s are registered (RD) or licensed (LD) with the Commission for Dietetic Registration and the American Dietetic Association, and are only able to use the title "dietitian", as described by the business and professions codes of each respective state, when they have met specific educational and experiential prerequisites and passed a national registration or licensure examination, respectively. Anyone may call themselves a nutritionist, including unqualified dietitians, as this term is unregulated.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}} Some states, such as the State of Florida, have begun to include the title "nutritionist" in state licensure requirements. Most governments provide guidance on nutrition, and some also impose [[mandatory labeling|mandatory disclosure/labeling]] requirements for processed food manufacturers and restaurants to assist consumers in complying with such guidance.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}

Nutritional standards and recommendations are established jointly by the [[USDA|US Department of Agriculture]] and [[United States Department of Health and Human Services|US Department of Health and Human Services]].<ref name="TODAY.com 2020 r293">{{cite web | last=Breen | first=Kerry | title=USDA releases new dietary guidelines: What do they mean for you? | website=TODAY.com | date=December 29, 2020 | url=https://www.today.com/health/usda-hhs-releases-new-dietary-guidelines-2020-2025-t204784 | access-date=April 8, 2024}}</ref> Dietary and physical activity guidelines from the USDA are presented in the concept of a [[MyPlate|plate of food]] which in 2011 superseded the [[MyPyramid]] food pyramid that had replaced the [[History of USDA nutrition guidelines#Food Guide Pyramid|Food Guide Pyramid]].<ref name="The Nutrition Source 2011 f036">{{cite web | title=Out with the Pyramid, In with the Plate | website=[[Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health]] | date=June 3, 2011 | url=https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2011/06/03/out-with-the-pyramid-in-with-the-plate/ | access-date=April 8, 2024}}</ref> The [[United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry]] is currently responsible for oversight of the USDA.<ref name="Goldstein 2023 w035">{{cite web | last=Goldstein | first=Adam | title=Members of U.S. Senate agriculture panel spar with Vilsack over USDA spending, response • Missouri Independent | website=Missouri Independent | date=March 17, 2023 | url=https://missouriindependent.com/2023/03/17/members-of-u-s-senate-agriculture-panel-spar-with-vilsack-over-usda-spending-response/ | access-date=April 8, 2024}}</ref> The [[U.S. Department of Health and Human Services]] provides a sample week-long menu which fulfills the nutritional recommendations of the government.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.mypyramid.gov/downloads/sample_menu.pdf | title=Archived copy | access-date=8 March 2008 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080308032337/http://www.mypyramid.gov/downloads/sample_menu.pdf | archive-date=8 March 2008}}</ref>

==== Canada ====
[[Canada's Food Guide]] is an evidence-based education and policy tool provided by [[Health Canada]] that is designed to promote healthy eating.<ref name="UN_Canada">{{cite web | title=Food-based dietary guidelines – Canada | website=Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | url=https://www.fao.org/nutrition/education/food-dietary-guidelines/regions/countries/canada/en/ | access-date=April 8, 2024}}</ref>

=== South Asia ===
[[South Asia]] has the highest percentage and number of underweight children under five in the world, at approximately 78 million children.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Patterns of stunting and wasting are similar, where 44% have not reached optimal height and 15% are wasted, rates much higher than any other regions.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> This region of the world has extremely high rates of underweight children. According to a 2006 UNICEF study, 46% of its child population under five is underweight.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> The same study indicates India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan combined account for half the globe's underweight child population.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> South Asian nations have made progress towards the [[MDGs]], considering the rate has decreased from 53% since 1990, however, a 1.7% decrease of underweight prevalence per year will not be sufficient to meet the 2015 goal.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Some nations, such as [[Afghanistan]], [[Bangladesh]], and [[Sri Lanka]], on the other hand, have made significant improvements, all decreasing their prevalence by half in ten years.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> While [[India]] and [[Pakistan]] have made modest improvements, [[Nepal]] has made no significant improvement in underweight child prevalence.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Other forms of undernutrition have continued to persist with high resistance to improvement, such as the prevalence of stunting and wasting, which has not changed significantly in the past 10 years.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Causes of this poor nutrition include energy-insufficient diets, poor sanitation conditions, and the gender disparities in educational and social status.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Girls and women face discrimination especially in nutrition status, where South Asia is the only region in the world where girls are more likely to be underweight than boys.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> In South Asia, 60% of children in the lowest quintile are underweight, compared to only 26% in the highest quintile, and the rate of reduction of underweight is slower amongst the poorest.<ref name="UNMDG2011">UN (2011b). The Millennium Development Goals report 2011. New York, United Nations. http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/statistics/mdg-report-2011.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221006011330/http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/statistics/mdg-report-2011.html |date=2022-10-06 }}.</ref>

=== Eastern and Southern Africa ===
The Eastern and Southern African nations have shown no improvement since 1990 in the rate of underweight children under five.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> They have also made no progress in halving hunger by 2015, the most prevalent [[Millennium Development Goal]].<ref name="Progress for Children" /> This is due primarily to the prevalence of famine, declined agricultural productivity, food emergencies, drought, conflict, and increased poverty.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> This, along with [[HIV]]/[[AIDS]], has inhibited the nutrition development of nations such as [[Lesotho]], [[Malawi]], [[Mozambique]], [[Swaziland]], [[Zambia]] and [[Zimbabwe]].<ref name="Progress for Children" /> [[Botswana]] has made remarkable achievements in reducing underweight prevalence, dropping 4% in 4 years, despite its place as the second leader in HIV prevalence amongst adults in the globe.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> [[South Africa]], the wealthiest nation in this region, has the second-lowest proportion of underweight children at 12%, but has been steadily increasing in underweight prevalence since 1995.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Almost half of [[Ethiopian]] children are underweight, and along with [[Nigeria]], they account for almost one-third of the underweight under five in all of [[Sub-Saharan Africa]].<ref name="Progress for Children" />

=== West and Central Africa ===
[[West Africa|West]] and [[Central Africa|Central]] Africa has the highest rate of children under five underweight in the world.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Of the countries in this region, the Congo has the lowest rate at 14%, while the nations of [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]], [[Ghana]], [[Guinea]], [[Mali]], [[Nigeria]], [[Senegal]] and [[Togo]] are improving slowly.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> In [[Gambia]], rates decreased from 26% to 17% in four years, and their coverage of vitamin A supplementation reaches 91% of vulnerable populations.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> This region has the next highest proportion of wasted children, with 10% of the population under five not at optimal weight.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Little improvement has been made between the years of 1990 and 2004 in reducing the rates of underweight children under five, whose rate stayed approximately the same.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> [[Sierra Leone]] has the highest child under five mortality rate in the world, due predominantly to its extreme infant mortality rate, at 238 deaths per 1000 live births.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Other contributing factors include the high rate of low birthweight children (23%) and low levels of exclusive breast feeding (4%).<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Anemia is prevalent in these nations, with unacceptable rates of iron deficient anemia.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> The nutritional status of children is further indicated by its high (10%) rate of child wasting.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Wasting is a significant problem in Sahelian countries&nbsp;– [[Burkina Faso]], [[Chad]], [[Mali]], [[Mauritania]] and [[Niger]]&nbsp;– where rates fall between 11% and 19% of under fives, affecting more than 1 million children.<ref name="Progress for Children" />

In [[Mali]], the [[International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics]] ([[ICRISAT]]) and the [[Aga Khan Foundation]] trained women's groups to make ''equinut'', a healthy and nutritional version of the traditional recipe ''di-dèguè'' (comprising peanut paste, honey and millet or rice flour). The aim was to boost nutrition and livelihoods by producing a product that women could make and sell, and which would be accepted by the local community because of its local heritage.<ref>[http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2013/04/Nourishing-Communities-Through-Holistic-Farming ''Nourishing communities through holistic farming''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006235945/https://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2013/04/Nourishing-Communities-Through-Holistic-Farming |date=6 October 2018 }}, Impatient optimists, [[Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation]]. 30 April 2013.</ref>

=== Middle East and North Africa ===
Six countries in the [[Middle East]] and [[North Africa]] region are on target to meet goals for reducing underweight children by 2015, and 12 countries have prevalence rates below 10%.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> However, the nutrition of children in the region as a whole has degraded for the past ten years due to the increasing portion of underweight children in three populous nations&nbsp;– [[Iraq]], [[Sudan]], and [[Yemen]].<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Forty six percent of all children in [[Yemen]] are underweight, a percentage that has worsened by 4% since 1990.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> In Yemen, 53% of children under five are stunted and 32% are born at low birth weight.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Sudan has an underweight prevalence of 41%, and the highest proportion of wasted children in the region at 16%.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> One percent of households in Sudan consume iodized salt.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Iraq has also seen an increase in child underweight since 1990.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> [[Djibouti]], [[Jordan]], the [[Occupied Palestinian Territory]] (OPT), [[Oman]], the [[Syrian Arab Republic]] and [[Tunisia]] are all projected to meet minimum nutrition goals, with OPT, Syrian AR, and Tunisia the fastest improving regions.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> This region demonstrates that undernutrition does not always improve with economic prosperity, where the [[United Arab Emirates]], for example, despite being a wealthy nation, has similar child death rates due to malnutrition to those seen in [[Yemen]].<ref name="Progress for Children" />

=== East Asia and the Pacific ===
The [[East Asia]] and Pacific region has reached its goals on nutrition, in part due to the improvements contributed by [[China]], the region's most populous country.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> China has reduced its underweight prevalence from 19 percent to 8 percent between 1990 and 2002.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> China played the largest role in the world in decreasing the rate of children under five underweight between 1990 and 2004, halving the prevalence.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> This reduction of underweight prevalence has aided in the lowering of the under 5 mortality rate from 49 to 31 of 1000. They also have a low birthweight rate at 4%, a rate comparable to industrialized countries, and over 90% of households receive adequate iodized salts.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> However, large disparities exist between children in rural and urban areas, where 5 provinces in China leave 1.5 million children iodine deficient and susceptible to diseases.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> [[Singapore]], [[Vietnam]], [[Malaysia]], and [[Indonesia]] are all projected to reach nutrition MDGs.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> [[Singapore]] has the lowest under five mortality rate of any nation, besides [[Iceland]], in the world, at 3%.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> [[Cambodia]] has the highest rate of child mortality in the region (141 per 1,000 live births), while still its proportion of underweight children increased by 5 percent to 45% in 2000. Further nutrient indicators show that only 12 per cent of Cambodian babies are exclusively breastfed and only 14 per cent of households consume [[iodized salt]].<ref name="Progress for Children" />

=== Latin America and the Caribbean ===
This region has undergone the fastest progress in decreasing poor nutrition status of children in the world.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> The [[Latin American]] region has reduced underweight children prevalence by 3.8% every year between 1990 and 2004, with a current rate of 7% underweight.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> They also have the lowest rate of child mortality in the developing world, with only 31 per 1000 deaths, and the highest [[iodine]] consumption.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> [[Cuba]] has seen improvement from 9 to 4 percent underweight under 5 between 1996 and 2004.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> The prevalence has also decreased in the [[Dominican Republic]], [[Jamaica]], [[Peru]], and [[Chile]].<ref name="Progress for Children" /> Chile has a rate of underweight under 5, at merely 1%.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> The most populous nations, [[Brazil]] and [[Mexico]], mostly have relatively low rates of underweight under 5, with only 6% and 8%.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> [[Guatemala]] has the highest percentage of underweight and stunted children in the region, with rates above 45%.<ref name="Progress for Children" /> There are disparities amongst different populations in this region. For example, children in rural areas have twice the prevalence of underweight at 13%, compared to urban areas at 5%.<ref name="Progress for Children" />