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Nutrition is fundamental to growth, development, and health throughout the lifecycle. While nutrition is central to SDG 2 (‘Zero hunger’) and SDG 3 (‘Good health and well-being’), nutrition is also linked to several other SDGs.
Malnutrition is now the leading underlying cause of illness and death globally. It includes undernutrition (stunting, wasting and underweight) and micronutrient deficiencies as well as overweight, obesity and diet related non-communicable diseases.
The IAEA supports the use of nuclear techniques to gather accurate data and guide nutrition interventions and programming.
This page describes nuclear techniques to measure nutrition outcomes. These include body composition, breast milk intake, energy expenditure, bone health, bioavailability of micronutrients and macronutrients from foods, and environmental enteric dysfunction. The IAEA fosters the widespread use of these techniques through the Technical Cooperation Programme, Coordinated Research Projects and guidance resources.