Mother's poor diet linked to stunted children

A mother's poor diet may just be linked to stunted children. Scientists have found that obese mothers, surprisingly, had stunted children.

"Malnutrition is not only a question of having enough food, it is also about not having good enough food," said Amina Aitsi-Selmi, lead author of the new study, in a news release. "A household diet rich in energy-dense, sugar food and poor in fruit and vegetables is unlikely to provide all the nutirents that children need to grow. I would consider a child fed on nothing but sugary snacks malnourished, even if they are not under-nourished."

According to Scienceworldreport.com, obesity is traditionally seen as a problem for rich countries and child stunting as a problem for poor countries. Yet the sudden availability of high energy-density foods has led to increased obesity rates-especially in Egypt.

In this case, the researchers found that children who were fed sweets were 51 percent more likely to belong to a "double-burden" household. Children who ate fruit and vegetables, in contrast, were 24 percent less likely to be in this category. In addition, the scientists found that 6.7 percent of Egyptian mothers were obese and had stunted children. More interestingly, the scientists found that maternal obesity increased while stunting levels among children decreased. Yet the number of obese mothers with stunted children increased.

"Whether there is a biological link between obese mothers and their stunted children from birth is not known, and our study does not address this question," said Aitsi-Selmi. "We did find that poor quality nutrition is associated with both maternal obesity and child stunting, suggesting that it may be a common factor for both conditions."

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