Malnutrition, scurvy and rickets – the shameful truth about child health in 2023

Child nutrition expert Dayna Brackley explains if we want to tackle the devastating truth about our children’s health, we need to transform the system and environment in which they live

Our food environment is also a huge contributor to our declining health (Getty)

Rickets, malnutrition and scurvy... in children. These are some of the conditions on the rise in the UK as reported by the Times Health Commission. According to the figures uncovered via a freedom of information request, malnutrition has more than doubled in the past ten years, and quadrupled since 2007/2008.

In 2023 in the UK, the sixth wealthiest nation in the world (measured by GDP), the health outcomes of our children are dire. The statistics paint a devastating picture: 23.4 per cent of 11- to 12-year-olds are living with obesity (the prevalence is twice as high for those living in deprived areas), close to a quarter of 5-year-olds have dental decay and children who have been raised in the age of austerity are shorter than their European counterparts. Shorter, bigger and in poorer health. How did we get here?

There are two main drivers for these worrying changes – the first is poverty and the second is the unhealthy food environment in which we live. A healthy diet is simply not affordable for those living in disadvantage.