Excess sugar in our diets is killing us...

In 2007, Scientific American printed an article by Barry M. Popkin on a new problem with Third-World societies; obesity. While most of us are extremely aware of our world’s problems with poverty, obesity is not something that springs to mind when you consider the health issues prevalent in countries such as Mexico and South Africa; it’s something we tend to relate to overindulgence and affluence. But the truth is clear in the statistics: more than 1.3 billion people worldwide are overweight, while in comparison, only 800 million are underweight. Here’s the low-down on how our world has become so high-fat.

So what’s caused this dramatic turnaround? Well, us, unfortunately. Globalisation: the term used to describe the spread of businesses, technologies or psychologies – has allowed the unhealthy habits of the wealthy Western world to become the norm throughout other countries, and it’s only getting worse.

Supermarkets

We don’t think anything of our weekly trips to the supermarket and, in fact, I’m not sure whether I would have made it through Uni without a 24hr Tesco down the road, but the spread of processed and convenience food is one of the main contributors to this obesity epidemic. Just as ease of access to processed foods has led to a dramatic increase in our consumption of salt, sugar, saturated fats and trans fats, developing countries are now also feeling the effects of these dietary changes. Popkin pays particular attention to the rise in consumption of soft drinks, available easily and cheaply from these supermarkets, which has introduced an estimated 350 additional daily calories into the Mexican diet.

Animal Products

The Western habit of making meat the centre of every dish also seems to be spreading to developing countries. Of course it’s true that protein is an essential part of our diet; each one of our cells relies on it in order to carry out the simplest of functions, but studies have found that too much protein be dangerous, even increasing your risk of cancer. In less than 10 years, the consumption of animal products quadrupled in urban China, and by 2020 developing countries are expected to produce nearly two thirds of the world’s meat and nearly half of its milk. This excessive intake increases the levels of saturated fats to a dangerous level, not only contributing to obesity, but also raising the risk of heart disease. See The Vegetarian Society website for information on alternative sources of protein.

Lifestyle

As well as our bad eating habits, the Western sedentary lifestyle is also spreading to developing countries. As technologies become more widely available, televisions are widely popular, tractors are used for farming and the number of people working in jobs in inactive or desk-bound jobs has risen substantially. All of these factors contribute to the population burning less overall calories, meaning that the negative effects of processed foods become even more dangerous.

Fast foods are increasing obesity

Now, of course no one is saying that everyone should revert to a stone-age way of life, simply to avoid becoming fat, but there need to be significant changes made in order to combat the problems our world is facing with obesity. The Food Standards Agency has been fighting for years for tighter restrictions on what can be put in processed foods. For example, their programme to help reduce the amount of saturated fat included in the diet of the average British adult began in 2008, and aims to build links with the food industry, raise consumer awareness and start a academic workshop exploring evidence on portion sizes, in order to reduce saturated fat intake by 20%; preventing up to 3500 related deaths a year. The FSA is now also considering whether a tax on processed foods would ease the problem. Popkin is pressing for similar measures to be taken by Third World governments. He insists on restructuring agricultural subsidies in order to encourage production of fruits and vegetables, and place a tax on all calorific sweeteners, while using revenue from the tax to encourage better all-round nutrition.

The fight against obesity is complicated in developing countries due to their continuing problem with hunger. As Popkin points out, most government and private aid programmes are concerned with hunger and disease, which is why so many of us are completely unaware that obesity affects the wider world. A delicate balance has to be achieved, whereby policies are instigated that can meet the nutritional needs of all members of society.

We’ve reaped the benefits of convenience food and revelled in all those little additions to our lives which are designed to make everything so much easier for us, without really considering the effects that it all has on our health. Even the endless development of the mobile phone means we no longer have to expend any form of energy getting up to turn on the computer to check our emails; it can all be done from one, very comfortable, place. We might finally be regaining control over the food industry, but we still have to accept responsibility for what we do to our bodies, and what we do to the world.