Malnutrition is stunting growth of our children

GP SAYS HE'S NOT SURPRISED BY NEW DATA REVEALING FIVE-YEAR-OLDS IN UK ARE SHORTER THAN COUNTERPARTS IN WEALTHY EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

- HELENA VESTY

FIVE-YEAR-OLDS in Britain are, on average, up to seven centimetres shorter than children in other wealthy nations, new data has revealed.

The stark figures reported in The Times were met with shock by many, with a poor national diet being blamed for the height difference. But for one leading doctor in Greater Manchester, it's 'not a surprise'.

GP Dr Zahid Chauhan OBE warns that the country is yet to see the more serious consequences of malnutrition, which he says is sweeping the UK as the cost of living crisis rolls on. Among the places worst affected are the more deprived boroughs of Greater Manchester which see huge numbers of children living in poverty and their health suffers for it.

The average five-year-old boy in the UK is 112.5cm tall, against 119.6cm in the Netherlands, according to data collected by NCD Risk Factor Collaboration. The average girl is 111.7cm tall, while her Dutch counterpart stands at 118.4cm.

By comparison, in Bulgaria, children are much taller, the research showed. There, boys are, on average, 120cm (almost 4ft) tall and girls are 118cm.

Children in Italy, Spain, France and Sweden are all much taller at age five, on average, than UK youngsters of the same age. The average height in Britain has stayed the same since the mid-1980s, whereas children in other countries, especially in Eastern Europe, have grown taller in the decades since.