On October 11, The Lancet, one of the most prestigious in the medical world, revealed a frightening figure: in the last 40 years the number of obese children has increased tenfold.
That means that while in the seventies there were 11 million children with several kilos of more, in 2016 that number was 124 million. This is a problem that can put health systems around the world at risk: obesity is a major cause of noncommunicable diseases.
Although the motives behind these figures are several, there is one that is contributing to children having poor eating habits: advertising.
Warnings that appear in most processed foods, such as packaged foods, cereals, chocolate drinks, fast foods, cookies, energy bars, sugary drinks, or precooked pastas, are affecting how minors consume food. Many times they appear as nutritious and healthy, when in truth they are not.
Some countries seek to regulate the advertising of such products and include all subjects who commercialize, manufacture, import or supply such articles aimed at children and adolescents. Its components can influence the metabolism of its organisms and develop future diseases.
In addition, it seeks to establish the correct way to present information on ingredients and additives, and seek to create a sanctioning regime for those who do not comply with the agreed provisions.
According to these organizations, between 2000 and 2013 the number per capita of fast food purchases in Latin America increased by 38.9%. In the United States the figure doubled.
In fact, both WHO and PAHO reiterate that “to support and encourage healthy eating patterns, it is necessary to curb the rapid increase in sales of ultraprocessed products across the continent through legal regulations.”
Some examples of ultraprocessed foods
According to WHO and PAHO, some examples of this type of product are “packaged potato chips and many other types of fatty products, snacks, packings, balances or sweets; ice cream, chocolates and candies; breads, rolls, cookies (cookies), packaged cakes and cakes, sweetened breakfast cereals, ‘energizing’ bars, jams and jellies, margarines, soft drinks and ‘energizing’ drinks, milk-based sugary drinks, including fruit yogurt, beverages and fruit nectars, chocolate drinks, infant formula, complementary dairy preparations and other baby products, and ‘healthy’ or ‘slimming’ products as powdered or ‘fortified’ substitutes for dishes or foods. “
Included in that list is ready-to-heat food, which includes “reconstituted dishes prepared from meat, fish and seafood, vegetables or cheese, pizzas, hamburgers and hot dogs, fries, nuggets, or sticks ) of poultry or fish, and soups, pastas and desserts, powdered or packaged.
They often seem to be about the same as meals or dishes prepared at home, but lists of ingredients that prove they are not. “
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