While successfully tackling malnutrition, Indonesia is also facing the problem of obesity, which can lead to various non-infectious diseases and health disorders, resulting in high medical costs.

Long considered as a problem in industrialized countries, obesity has begun to escalate in low- and middle-income countries including Indonesia, according to Roger Shrimpton, a nutrition consultant at the World Bank.

“You see more and more households with obese people. This has become a trend,” he said.

Data from the 2010 Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) shows the percentage of obese people aged over 18 with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 27 stands at 21.7 percent. The same data shows obesity among kids below five years old had increased to 14 percent from 11 percent in 2007.

“Younger children are getting fatter,” said Shrimpton, an adjunct professor ...