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Helping children live healthier lives
Children’s health: the hard facts
According to the latest research (pdf, 7Mb), 49 million children under the age of 5 are wasted*, and almost 17 million are severely wasted. There are also 149 million children who are stunted** and 40 million who are overweight or obese. To help us overcome this global challenge, it’s important for children to follow a healthy diet from a young age.*wasted - low weight for height
**stunted - a low height for age
How Nestlé is improving children's health
To help tackle global public health issues and to satisfy consumer preferences, we are launching more nutritious foods and beverages, simplifying ingredient lists and removing artificial colors. We use micronutrient fortification to help address health challenges where relevant and use biofortified crops where appropriate in our foods and beverages. We are also further decreasing sugars, sodium and saturated fat, and increasing vegetables and wholegrains in our products.
Our expert says
Our research is making an important contribution to understanding how to provide the right nutrition at every stage of childhood. It will also help us to develop more personalized nutrition solutions for children with metabolic conditions (e.g. diabetes). These solutions are often the best way to optimize healthy growth.
Using this knowledge to understand what is crucial for healthy growth supports Nestlé’s 2030 ambition to help 50 million children lead healthier lives. It’s just one of the ways we at Nestlé are enhancing quality of life and contributing to a healthier future.
Parents and caregivers: helping to inspire healthier lives
Nutrition is key to ensuring healthy development in children. One of the best ways for children to learn how to lead healthy lives is through parents and caregivers.
By introducing children to healthy habits when they are young, we can help them make healthy choices for life:
- Cooking healthy, balanced meals.
- Encouraging healthy hydration
- Encouraging children to exercise
When it comes to improving children's health, we cannot do it alone
It is a global problem that requires all of us – parents, caregivers, health professionals and the food industry – to work together. So, what will you do?
