🔗 Share this article

The scourge of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is an international crisis. Although their intake is notably greater in Western nations, forming over 50% the average diet in places such as the United Kingdom and United States, for example, UPFs are replacing whole foods in diets on each part of the world.

This month, the world’s largest review on the dangers to well-being of UPFs was published. It warned that such foods are exposing millions of people to long-term harm, and called for immediate measures. Earlier this year, an international child welfare organization revealed that more children around the world were suffering from obesity than malnourished for the historic moment, as junk food dominates diets, with the steepest rises in developing nations.

A noted nutrition professor, professor of public health nutrition at the a prominent Brazilian university, and one of the review's authors, says that companies focused on earnings, not individual choices, are driving the transformation in dietary behavior.

For parents, it can appear that the entire food system is working against them. “Sometimes it feels like we have no authority over what we are placing onto our children's meals,” says one mother from the Indian subcontinent. We conversed with her and four other parents from across the globe on the expanding hurdles and frustrations of ensuring a balanced nourishment in the era of ultra-processing.

In Nepal: Battling a Child's Desire for Packaged Snacks

Raising a child in this South Asian country today often feels like fighting a losing battle, especially when it comes to food. I cook at home as much as I can, but the second my daughter leaves the house, she is encircled by vibrantly wrapped snacks and sweetened beverages. She constantly craves cookies, chocolates and processed juice drinks – products aggressively advertised to children. One solitary pizza commercial on TV is enough for her to ask, “Can we have pizza today?”

Even the school environment reinforces unhealthy habits. Her canteen serves sweetened fruit juice every Tuesday, which she looks forward to. She is given a packet of six cookies from a friend on the school bus and chocolates on birthdays, and faces a french fry stand right outside her school gate.

Some days it feels like the whole nutritional ecosystem is opposing parents who are merely attempting to raise healthy children.

As someone working in the a national health coalition and spearheading a project called Promoting Healthy Foods in Schools, I grasp this issue thoroughly. Yet even with my knowledge, keeping my school-age girl healthy is incredibly difficult.

These constant encounters at school, in transit and online make it almost unfeasible for parents to restrict ultra-processed foods. It is not simply about children’s choices; it is about a food system that normalises and promotes unhealthy eating.

And the data shows clearly what parents in my situation are going through. A demographic health study found that 69% of children between six and 23 months ate unhealthy foods, and 43% were already drinking flavored liquids.

These figures echo what I see every day. A study conducted in the region where I live reported that almost one in five of schoolchildren were above a healthy size and more than seven percent were suffering from obesity, figures closely associated with the rise in processed food intake and increasingly inactive lifestyles. Additional analysis showed that many youngsters of the country eat sweet snacks or salty packaged items nearly every day, and this habitual eating is associated with high levels of oral health problems.

This nation urgently needs more robust regulations, better nutritional atmospheres in schools and stricter marketing regulations. Until then, families will continue fighting a daily battle against unhealthy snacks – an individual snack bag at a time.

St Vincent and the Grenadines: ‘Greasy, Salty, Sugary Fast Food is the Preference’

My circumstances is a bit different as I was had to evacuate from an island in our archipelago that was ravaged by a major hurricane last year. But it is also part of the bleak situation that is affecting parents in a area that is experiencing the most severe impacts of global warming.

“The circumstances definitely deteriorates if a cyclone or mountain explosion destroys most of your plant life.”

Before the occurrence of the storm, as a food nutrition and health teacher, I was deeply concerned about the increasing proliferation of fast food restaurants. Currently, even smaller village shops are participating in the shift of a country once characterized by a diet of nutritious home-produced fruits and vegetables, to one where greasy, salty, sugary fast food, packed with synthetic components, is the preference.

But the scenario definitely intensifies if a natural disaster or volcanic eruption wipes out most of your crops. Unprocessed ingredients becomes scarce and prohibitively costly, so it is incredibly challenging to get your kids to consume healthy meals.

Regardless of having a steady job I wince at food prices now and have often opted for selecting from items such as peas and beans and meat and eggs when feeding my four children. Offering reduced portions or diminished quantities have also become part of the post-disaster coping strategies.

Also it is very easy when you are managing a stressful occupation with parenting, and hurrying about in the morning, to just give the children a couple of coins to buy snacks at school. Sadly, most school tuck shops only offer highly packaged treats and sweet fizzy drinks. The consequence of these hurdles, I fear, is an increase in the already alarming levels of lifestyle diseases such as blood sugar disorders and high blood pressure.

The Allure of Fast Food in Uganda

The logo of a international restaurant franchise looms large at the entrance of a mall in a city district, daring you to pass by without stopping at the takeaway window.

Many of the kids and caregivers visiting the mall have never ventured outside the borders of Uganda. They certainly don’t know about the past financial depression that inspired the founder to start one of the first global eatery brands. All they know is that the famous acronym represent all things sophisticated.

Throughout commercial complexes and every market, there is quick-service cuisine for every pocket. As one of the more expensive options, the fried chicken chain is considered a special occasion. It is the place local households go to observe birthdays and baptisms. It is the children’s prize when they get a favorable grades. In fact, they are hoping their parents take them there for the holidays.

“Mother, do you know that some people pack fast food for school lunch,” my 14-year-old daughter, who attends a school in the area, tells me. She says that on the days they do not pack that, they pack food from a regional restaurant brand selling everything from cooked morning dishes to burgers.

It is the end of the week, and I am only {half-listening|