🔗 Share this article

The plague of industrially manufactured edible products is truly global. Even though their intake is notably greater in developed countries, constituting more than half the average diet in nations like Britain and America, for example, UPFs are taking the place of whole foods in diets on every continent.

This month, an extensive international analysis on the dangers to well-being of UPFs was published. It alerted that such foods are leaving millions of people to persistent health issues, and called for swift intervention. Previously in the year, an international child welfare organization revealed that more children around the world were obese than malnourished for the first time, as processed edibles floods diets, with the steepest rises in low- and middle-income countries.

Carlos Monteiro, an academic specializing in dietary health at the University of São Paulo, and one of the analysis's writers, says that profit-driven corporations, not consumer preferences, are propelling the change in habits.

For parents, it can seem as if the entire food system is opposing them. “On occasion it feels like we have no authority over what we are putting on our children's meals,” says one mother from the Indian subcontinent. We interviewed her and four other parents from around the world on the expanding hurdles and frustrations of supplying a balanced nourishment in the age of UPFs.

Nepal: ‘She Craves Cookies, Chocolate and Juice’

Nurturing a child in Nepal today often feels like fighting a losing battle, especially when it comes to food. I prepare meals at home as much as I can, but the moment my daughter goes out, she is bombarded with colorfully presented snacks and sugar-laden liquids. She constantly craves cookies, chocolates and packaged fruit juices – products aggressively advertised to children. A single pizza commercial on TV is sufficient for her to ask, “Is it possible to eat pizza today?”

Even the academic atmosphere perpetuates unhealthy habits. Her cafeteria serves flavored drink every Tuesday, which she looks forward to. She gets a six-piece biscuit pack 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 working against parents who are merely attempting to raise well-nourished kids.

As someone employed by the an organization fighting chronic illnesses and heading a project called Advocating for Better School Diets, I grasp this issue deeply. Yet even with my expertise, keeping my eight-year-old daughter healthy is extremely challenging.

These constant encounters at school, in transit and online make it almost unfeasible for parents to limit ultra-processed foods. It is not only about the selections of the young; it is about a dietary structure that encourages and promotes unhealthy eating.

And the figures mirrors precisely what parents in my situation are going through. A comprehensive population report found that 69% of children between six and 23 months ate junk food, and 43% were already drinking flavored liquids.

These figures echo what I see every day. An analysis conducted in the region where I live reported that 18.6% of schoolchildren were above a healthy size and more than seven percent were suffering from obesity, figures strongly correlated with the rise in processed food intake and less active lifestyles. Further research showed that many Nepali children eat sugary treats or manufactured savory snacks on a regular basis, and this regular consumption is associated with high levels of tooth decay.

This nation urgently needs tighter rules, healthier school environments and more stringent promotion limits. Before that happens, families will continue fighting a daily battle against unhealthy snacks – an individual snack bag at a time.

In St. Vincent: The Shift from Local Produce to Processed Meals

My situation is a bit different as I was compelled to move from an island in our chain of islands that was ravaged by a powerful storm last year. But it is also part of the harsh truth that is confronting parents in a part of the world that is experiencing the gravest consequences of global warming.

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

Prior to the storm, as a food nutrition and health teacher, I was very worried about the rising expansion of quick-service eateries. Nowadays, even smaller village shops are participating in the transformation of a country once characterized by a diet of healthy locally grown fruits and vegetables, to one where fatty, briny, candied fast food, loaded with synthetic components, is the favorite.

But the scenario definitely worsens if a natural disaster or volcanic eruption wipes out most of your crops. Unprocessed ingredients becomes hard to find and very expensive, so it is incredibly challenging to get your kids to eat right.

Despite having a regular work I flinch at food prices now and have often turned to selecting from items such as legumes and pulses and animal products when feeding my four children. Serving fewer meals or smaller servings have also become part of the post-crisis adaptation techniques.

Also it is rather simple when you are managing a challenging career with parenting, and scrambling in the morning, to just give the children a couple of coins to buy snacks at school. Sadly, most campus food stalls only offer highly packaged treats and sugary sodas. The outcome of these difficulties, I fear, is an increase in the already widespread prevalence of non-communicable illnesses such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

Uganda: ‘It’s in Every Mall and Every Market’

The logo of a major fried chicken chain towers conspicuously at the entrance of a shopping center in a urban area, challenging you to pass by without stopping at the takeaway window.

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 past financial depression that led the founder to start one of the first global eatery brands. All they know is that the famous acronym represent all things modern.

In every mall and each trading place, 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 Kampala’s families go to mark 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 Christmas.

“Mum, do you know that some people take 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 weekend, and I am only {half-listening|