Focus on the political and commercial drivers behind the double burden of malnutrition

On Dec. 16, The Lancet published a new series of papers on The Double Burden of Malnutrition—the combination of undernutrition (stunting, wasting, and micronutrient deficiencies) with overweight, obesity, and associated non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This term has been around for nearly three decades, but the rapid shifts in global and national food systems and their profound implications for the nutritional well-being of most people on the planet—and for the planet itself—justify the journal’s label, “a new nutrition reality.”

The four papers in the series—on dynamics, etiological pathways and consequences, double-duty actions and economic effects of the double burden—are all excellent.

But there’s something missing.

Photo credit: Melissa Cooperman/IFPRI