RESUMO
The relationship between the global food system and the worldwide rapid increase of obesity and related diseases is not yet well understood. A reason is that the full impact of industrialized food processing on dietary patterns, including the environments of eating and drinking, remains overlooked and underestimated. Many forms of food processing are beneficial. But what is identified and defined here as ultra-processing, a type of process that has become increasingly dominant, at first in high-income countries, and now in middle-income countries, creates attractive, hyper-palatable, cheap, ready-to-consume food products that are characteristically energy-dense, fatty, sugary or salty and generally obesogenic. In this study, the scale of change in purchase and sales of ultra-processed products is examined and the context and implications are discussed. Data come from 79 high- and middle-income countries, with special attention to Canada and Brazil. Results show that ultra-processed products dominate the food supplies of high-income countries, and that their consumption is now rapidly increasing in middle-income countries. It is proposed here that the main driving force now shaping the global food system is transnational food manufacturing, retailing and fast food service corporations whose businesses are based on very profitable, heavily promoted ultra-processed products, many in snack form.
Assuntos
Fast Foods/efeitos adversos , Manipulação de Alimentos , Abastecimento de Alimentos/estatística & dados numéricos , Brasil , Canadá , Bebidas Gaseificadas , Países Desenvolvidos/estatística & dados numéricos , Países em Desenvolvimento/estatística & dados numéricos , Comportamento Alimentar , Abastecimento de Alimentos/economia , Humanos , Renda , Obesidade/epidemiologia , LanchesRESUMO
It is study made an analysis of national expert reports on dietary guidelines published all over the world in the 30-year period between 1961 and 1991. The aim is to identify what the reports recommend about the consumption of sugars and their relation to chronic diseases, and also what advice should be given to the public and appropriate authorities regarding levels of sugars in the diet. Information was gathered from 115 reports published by experts committees in 36 different countries and regions of the world, including developed and developing countries. The results showed that the great majority (84.5%) of the reports analysed make recommendations on the extrinsic consumption of sugar and that there is an agreement that these sugars, especially sucrose, must be reduced in the diet. The commonest level proposed is that 10% of total calorie intake from extrinsic sugars should be considered the maximum level. Such advice is often addressed to the general population and it is offered with a view to the maintenance of general health and especially to the prevention dental caries and obesity. It was concluded that advice on the intake of sugars given by dietary guidelines in the last three decades is coherent with the existing scientific evidence on the relationship between sugars and human diseases and, therefore, they should be integrated into national food and health policies.