According to a report by Save the Children group, a quarter of the world's children have higher chances of underperforming at school due to chronic malnutrition.
Lack of nutritious diet in children can badly damage reading and writing skills of children and the damage could be irreversible. According to the study, children develop smaller and weaker because of which their brains might not build up completely.
For the study, the UK researchers studied thousands of children in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam. The charity group said that the G8 countries should take the malnourishment problem seriously and should work on it.
"Food for Thought" report revealed that stunted children below 8 years of age had 19 percent of chances to make mistake in reading simple sentences such as "the sun is hot" and "I like dogs."
This may also affect their financial matters. They may perhaps earn as much as 20 percent less in adulthood. Save the Children said that the global economic impact of malnutrition could be up to $125bn (£83bn).
"Poor nutrition is driving a literacy and numeracy crisis in developing countries, and is also a huge barrier to further progress in tackling child deaths," said Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children International's Chief Executive.
"A quarter of the world's children are suffering the effects of chronic malnutrition, putting millions of young lives at risk."
World leaders attending nutrition summit in London on June 8 at G8 gathering must "face this crisis and tackle the scourge of malnutrition for good", said Whitbread.
