🔗 Share this article

T scourge of industrially manufactured edible products is a worldwide phenomenon. Although their intake is notably greater in the west, constituting over 50% the average diet in nations like Britain and America, for example, UPFs are replacing fresh food in diets on all corners of the globe.

Recently, an extensive international analysis on the risks to physical condition of UPFs was issued. It warned that such foods are exposing millions of people to long-term harm, and called for urgent action. Earlier this year, a major children's agency revealed that an increased count of kids around the world were obese than malnourished for the initial instance, as unhealthy snacks dominates diets, with the steepest rises in low- and middle-income countries.

A leading public health expert, a scholar in the field of nourishment science at the University of São Paulo, and one of the review's authors, says that profit-driven corporations, not individual choices, are fueling the transformation in dietary behavior.

For parents, it can appear that the whole nutritional landscape is working against them. “On occasion it feels like we have no authority over what we are serving on our child's dish,” says one mother from the Indian subcontinent. We spoke to her and four other parents from internationally on the expanding hurdles and annoyances of providing a nutritious food regimen in the time of manufactured foods.

Nepal: ‘She Craves Cookies, Chocolate and Juice’

Bringing up a child in Nepal today often feels like battling an uphill struggle, especially when it comes to food. I cook at home as much as I can, but the moment my daughter goes out, she is bombarded with vibrantly wrapped snacks and sweetened beverages. She persistently desires cookies, chocolates and bottled fruit beverages – products aggressively advertised to children. A single pizza commercial on TV is sufficient for her to ask, “Can we have pizza today?”

Even the educational setting perpetuates unhealthy habits. Her school lunchroom serves sweetened fruit juice every Tuesday, which she eagerly awaits. She receives 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 undermining parents who are just striving to raise healthy children.

As someone associated with the Nepal Non-Communicable Disease Alliance and leading a project called Encouraging Nutritious Meals in Education, I understand this issue thoroughly. Yet even with my knowledge, keeping my eight-year-old daughter healthy is exceptionally hard.

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

And the statistics shows clearly what families like mine are facing. A demographic health study found that a significant majority of children between six and 23 months ate poor dietary items, and a substantial portion were already drinking sugary drinks.

These numbers are reflected in what I see every day. Research conducted in the district where I live reported that a notable percentage of schoolchildren were carrying excess weight and 7.1% were clinically overweight, figures strongly correlated with the surge in processed food intake and less active lifestyles. Further research showed that many youngsters of the country eat sugary treats or salty packaged items on a regular basis, and this habitual eating is associated with high levels of oral health problems.

Nepal urgently needs stronger policies, improved educational settings and more stringent promotion limits. In the meantime, families will continue engaging in an ongoing struggle against junk food – a single cookie pack at a time.

Caribbean Challenges: When Fast Food Becomes the Default

My position is a bit different as I was compelled to move from an island in our archipelago that was destroyed by a powerful storm last year. But it is also part of the bleak situation that is facing parents in a area that is enduring the most severe impacts of global warming.

“Conditions definitely worsens if a storm or mountain explosion destroys most of your plant life.”

Prior to the storm, as a food nutrition and health teacher, I was very worried about the increasing proliferation of quick-service eateries. Nowadays, even smaller village shops are complicit in the transformation of a country once characterized by a diet of fresh regional fruits and vegetables, to one where oily, salted, sweetened fast food, packed with manufactured additives, is the preference.

But the scenario definitely worsens if a severe weather event or volcanic eruption decimates most of your vegetation. Unprocessed ingredients becomes hard to find and extremely pricey, so it is exceptionally hard to get your kids to eat right.

Despite having a stable employment I wince at food prices now and have often resorted to selecting from items such as vegetables and animal products when feeding my four children. Offering reduced portions or diminished quantities have also become part of the post-crisis adaptation techniques.

Also it is very easy when you are managing a challenging career with parenting, and rushing around in the morning, to just give the children a couple of coins to buy snacks at school. Unfortunately, most educational snack bars only offer highly packaged treats and sweet fizzy drinks. The result of these challenges, I fear, is an increase in the already widespread prevalence of lifestyle diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular strain.

Kampala's Landscape: A Fast-Food Dominated Environment

The sign of a major fried chicken chain looms large at the entrance of a mall in a Kampala neighbourhood, daring you to pass by without stopping at the drive-through.

Many of the children and parents visiting the mall have never ventured outside the borders of Uganda. They certainly don’t know about the past financial depression that led the founder to start one of the first worldwide restaurant networks. All they know is that the famous acronym represent all things sophisticated.

In every mall and every market, there is fast food for all budgets. As one of the pricier selections, the fried chicken chain is considered a luxury. It is the place Kampala’s families go to celebrate 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 Christmas.

“Mom, do you know that some people pack takeaway 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 weekend, and I am only {half-listening|