SHAH ALAM – Socioeconomic disparities among families have been identified as one of the key factors affecting children’s diet quality, contributing to the growing “double burden of malnutrition” in the country.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Nutrition Professor Dr Poh Bee Koon said most children in Malaysia are still not meeting the Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) and Minimum Acceptable Diet (MAD) standards, particularly among low-income families and rural communities.
She said the situation worsened after the Covid-19 pandemic, when many households lost income and were forced to change their daily eating habits.
“More than 60 per cent of households reported a drop in monthly income, which led to a significant reduction in the intake of essential nutrients such as milk and dairy products.
“At the same time, there was an increase in the consumption of cheap and convenient staple foods such as instant noodles,” she told Sinar.
She added that these dietary shifts have created a complex cycle of malnutrition, where some children suffer from undernutrition leading to stunting, while others face overweight issues.
“This phenomenon can occur within the same individual, the same family, or even at population level.
“For example, parents may be obese while their children are stunted due to high-calorie but low-nutrient food intake,” she said.
Dr Poh said an obesogenic food environment is also contributing to the issue, as ultra-processed foods, sugary drinks and viral food trends are becoming increasingly normalised among children and adolescents.
“The influence of modern and Western-style foods that are high in sugar, fat and salt is making healthy diets harder to maintain.
“This not only affects diet quality but also increases the risk of non-communicable diseases at a younger age,” she said.
Globally, nearly 43 million children are reported to suffer from wasting due to acute malnutrition, which can affect long-term physical growth and cognitive development.
In Malaysia, the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2022 showed that stunting among children under five remains high at 21.2 per cent, with 15.3 per cent underweight and 11 per cent wasted.
At the same time, about six per cent of children under five are overweight.
For those aged five to 17, around 15 per cent are overweight and 14.8 per cent are obese, reflecting a worrying national nutrition paradox.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Health Chairman Suhaizan Kayat said that the government is implementing the National Strategic Plan to Combat the Double Burden of Malnutrition Among Children in Malaysia 2023–2030 to tackle the issue.
He said the plan focuses on three main targets: reducing stunting and wasting, maintaining or lowering childhood obesity rates and improving healthy eating practices.
The government is also planning to introduce the Malaysian Nutrition Act, expected to be gazetted in 2027, to regulate food nutrition standards for the population, particularly children.