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CABALLERO, Benjamin. A nutrition paradox – underweight and obesity in developing countries. The New England Journal of Medicine, v. 352, n. 15, p. 1514-6, 14 Apr. 2005.
A few years ago, I was visiting a primary care clinic in the slums of São Paulo. The waiting room was full of mothers with thin, stunted young children, exhibiting the typical signs of chronic undernutrition. Their appearance, sadly, would surprise few who visit poor urban areas in the developing world. What might come as a surprise is that many of the mothers holding those undernourished infants were themselves overweight.The combination of underweight in children and overweight in adults, frequently coexisting in the same family, is a relatively new phenomenon in developing countries undergoing the nutrition transition…
