A report said Thursday that over 49 million people in the U.S. do not have regular access to nutritious meals, putting them at risk for a raft of physical, psychological and social problems.

The report published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association says that about 15 percent of households in the U.S. experienced food insecurity sometime during 2008.

The report warned that the number of Americans who have trouble getting a nutritious meal is likely to rise.
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Over a third of 17.3 million food-insecure people in the U.S. in 2008 lived in households where eating patterns where severely disrupted and food intake was greatly reduced.

The report said that parents often “protect” their young children from hunger in the food-insecure homes, opting to go without food themselves to allow their kids to eat.

According to the report, poor families, households with children headed by a single parent of either sex, and black and Hispanic homes were at particular risk for food insecurity.

The report said that problems linked to malnutrition include poor academic performance and a greater risk of chronic disease and obesity.

American Dietetic Association experts compiled a report that called for “systematic and sustained action” at the federal and local levels to help fight what they refer to as the avoidable public health issue of food insecurity in the world’s richest nation.