Added sugars in foods should make up less than 10 percent of daily calories, said US government dietary guidelines issued Thursday that for the first time urged specific limits on sweets. Saturated fats should also make up less than 10 percent of a day’s food intake, said the guidelines which are released every five years by the US Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services. Doctors and some consumer groups hailed the guidelines as an important step forward in a nation where more than one-third of adults — nearly 79 million people — are obese.

As another dangerously underweight toddler balances precariously on his set of scales, Dr Om Prakash knows he has to move fast to avert tragedy. “The children who are severely malnourished can die between a few hours to a few days,” says the doctor during a shift at an intensive care unit exclusively for children in India’s poorest state. The 30-bed hospital at Darbhanga in the eastern state of Bihar teems with children with protruding bellies and sunken eyes — telltale signs of wasting and stunting, owing to severe malnutrition.