This menace of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is an international crisis. While their consumption is especially elevated in the west, constituting the majority of the typical food intake 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.
Recently, an extensive international analysis on the health threats of UPFs was published. It cautioned that such foods are leaving millions of people to persistent health issues, and urged immediate measures. In a prior announcement, an international child welfare organization revealed that more children around the world were suffering from obesity than too thin for the first time, as junk food dominates diets, with the sharpest climbs in developing nations.
A leading public health expert, an academic specializing in dietary health at the University of São Paulo, and one of the review's authors, says that companies focused on earnings, not personal decisions, are propelling the shift in eating patterns.
For parents, it can seem as if the entire food system is working against them. “Sometimes it feels like we have absolutely no power over what we are placing onto our kid’s plate,” says one mother from the Indian subcontinent. We spoke to her and four other parents from across the globe on the growing challenges and irritations of supplying a nutritious food regimen in the time of manufactured foods.
Raising a child in Nepal today often feels like battling an uphill struggle, especially when it comes to food. I make food at home as much as I can, but the instant my daughter steps outside, she is encircled by colorfully presented snacks and sugar-laden liquids. She continually yearns for cookies, chocolates and processed juice drinks – products aggressively advertised to children. Just one pizza commercial on TV is all it takes for her to ask, “Can we have pizza today?”
Even the school environment perpetuates unhealthy habits. Her cafeteria serves flavored drink every Tuesday, which she anxiously anticipates. She is given a packet of six cookies from a friend on the school bus and chocolates on birthdays, and encounters a snack bar right outside her school gate.
On certain occasions it feels like the whole nutritional ecosystem is opposing parents who are just striving to raise healthy children.
As someone associated with the Nepal Non-Communicable Disease Alliance and heading a project called Encouraging Nutritious Meals in Education, I grasp this issue profoundly. Yet even with my knowledge, keeping my school-age girl healthy is extremely challenging.
These ongoing experiences at school, in transit and online make it nearly impossible for parents to limit ultra-processed foods. It is not only about the selections of the young; it is about a dietary structure that normalises and promotes unhealthy eating.
And the statistics shows clearly what households such as my own are going through. A demographic health study found that over two-thirds of children between six and 23 months ate unhealthy foods, and a substantial portion were already drinking sugary drinks.
These numbers echo what I see every day. An analysis conducted in the region where I live reported that a notable percentage of schoolchildren were carrying excess weight and a smaller yet concerning fraction were suffering from obesity, figures directly linked with the surge in junk food consumption and increasingly inactive lifestyles. Additional analysis showed that many youngsters of the country eat sugary treats or processed savoury foods almost daily, and this habitual eating is tied to high levels of oral health problems.
Nepal urgently needs tighter rules, improved educational settings and stricter marketing regulations. Before that happens, families will continue waging a constant war against junk food – one biscuit packet at a time.
My position is a bit particular as I was had to evacuate from an island in our archipelago that was destroyed by a major hurricane last year. But it is also part of the bleak situation that is facing parents in a part of the world that is enduring the gravest consequences of global warming.
“Conditions definitely deteriorates if a cyclone or mountain explosion eliminates most of your crops.”
Before the occurrence of the storm, as a nutrition instructor, I was very worried about the growing spread of convenience food outlets. Currently, even local corner stores are involved in the change of a country once characterized by a diet of healthy locally grown fruits and vegetables, to one where oily, salted, sweetened fast food, loaded with artificial ingredients, is the favorite.
But the condition definitely worsens if a natural disaster or geological event decimates most of your vegetation. Unprocessed ingredients becomes hard to find and extremely pricey, so it is exceptionally hard to get your kids to consume healthy meals.
Despite having a steady job I wince at food prices now and have often resorted to selecting from items such as vegetables and protein sources when feeding my four children. Serving fewer meals or reduced helpings have also become part of the recovery survival methods.
Also it is quite convenient 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. Regrettably, most educational snack bars only offer ultra-processed snacks and sugary sodas. The outcome of these difficulties, I fear, is an rise in the already widespread prevalence of chronic conditions such as blood sugar disorders and cardiovascular strain.
The symbol of a global fast-food brand stands prominently at the entrance of a shopping center in a Kampala neighbourhood, daring you to pass by without stopping at the drive-through.
Many of the kids and caregivers visiting the mall have never gone beyond the borders of this East African nation. They certainly don’t know about the historical economic crisis that inspired the founder to start one of the first American international food chains. All they know is that the three letters represent all things desirable.
In every mall and each trading place, there is fast food for all budgets. As one of the costlier choices, the fried chicken chain is considered a treat. It is the place Kampala’s families go to observe birthdays and baptisms. It is the children’s reward when they get a good school report. In fact, they are hoping their parents take them there for the holidays.
“Mum, do you know that some people pack fried chicken 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 popular east African fast-food chain selling everything from fried breakfasts to burgers.
It is the end of the week, and I am only {half-listening|
A dedicated journalist passionate about uncovering local stories and fostering community engagement through insightful reporting.
