Food insecurity in early life could affect overall health and development

Some 17% of households face food insecurity, where access to nutritional and safe food is not readily available, and a new study finds that children in such situations may be more likely to have other health problems later in life. Researchers looked at data from more than 28,000 children under the age of 4 — half of whom were African-American — and found that although food insecurity in early life didn’t lead to increased risk of obesity, underweight, or stunting, it did adversely affect other aspects of health and development. The older the children were, the more likely they were to be in fair or poor health. At the same time, kids under the age of 1 who were from food-insecure households had the highest developmental risk, meaning parents expressed concern about cognition or other skills.