Many working parents in Malaysia do not have the time or money to ensure healthy diets for their children, experts say.
In those three nations, an average of 40% of children aged five and below are malnourished, higher than the global average of one-in-three, according to a report out today from Unicef, the UN children’s agency. To give some sense of scale to the problem, Indonesia had 24.4 million children under five last year, while the Philippines had 11 million and Malaysia 2.6 million, Unicef data shows.
Indonesia was the world’s second-biggest consumer of instant noodles, behind China, with 12.5 billion servings in 2018, according to the World Instant Noodles Association.Nutrient-rich fruits, vegetables, eggs, dairy, fish and meat are disappearing from diets as the rural population moves to the cities in search of jobs, the Unicef report said.
Low-income households in Malaysia depend largely on ready-made noodles, sweet potatoes and soya-based products as their major meals, he said.