Babies, soft drinks and snacks: a concern in low- and middle-income countries?
TL;DR: Future surveys should include quantitative data on the purchase and consumption of snack foods by infants and young children, using consistent definitions and methods for identifying and categorising snack foods across surveys, to assess associations between snack food consumption and stunting and overweight.
Abstract: Undernutrition in infants and young children is a global health priority while overweight is an emerging issue. Small-scale studies in low- and middle-income countries have demonstrated consumption of sugary and savoury snack foods and soft drinks by young children. We assessed the proportion of children 6–23 months of age consuming sugary snack foods in 18 countries in Asia and Africa using data from selected Demographic and Health Surveys and household expenditures on soft drinks and biscuits using data from four Living Standards Measurement Studies (LSMS). Consumption of sugary snack foods increased with the child's age and household wealth, and was generally higher in urban vs. rural areas. In one-third of countries, >20% of infants 6–8 months consumed sugary snacks. Up to 75% of Asian children and 46% of African children consumed these foods in the second year of life. The proportion of children consuming sugary snack foods was generally higher than the proportion consuming fortified infant cereals, eggs or fruit. Household per capita daily expenditures on soft drinks ranged from $0.03 to $0.11 in three countries for which LSMS data were available, and from $0.01 to $0.04 on biscuits in two LSMS. Future surveys should include quantitative data on the purchase and consumption of snack foods by infants and young children, using consistent definitions and methods for identifying and categorising snack foods across surveys. Researchers should assess associations between snack food consumption and stunting and overweight, and characterise household, maternal and child characteristics associated with snack food consumption.
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TL;DR: Understanding that the lowest income LMICs face severe levels of the DBM and that the major direct cause is rapid increases in overweight allows identifying selected crucial drivers and possible options for addressing the D BM at all levels.
661 citations
TL;DR: Mitigation of the double burden of malnutrition (DBM) will require major societal shifts regarding nutrition and public health, to implement comprehensive change that is sustained over decades, and scaled up into the entire global food system.
374 citations
TL;DR: It is found that undernutrition, obesity, and DR-NCDs are intrinsically linked through early-life nutrition, diet diversity, food environments, and socioeconomic factors.
216 citations
01 Nov 2015
TL;DR: Concerted national action involving governments, partners, private sector and civil society is needed to re-orient health systems and build capacity to address the dual burden of malnutrition, to regulate the food and beverage industry and to encourage healthy eating throughout the life course.
Abstract: The nutrition landscape in West Africa has been dominated by the programmes to address undernutrition. However, with increasing urbanisation, technological developments and associated change in dietary patterns and physical activity, childhood and adult overweight, and obesity are becoming more prevalent. There is an evidence of increasing intake of dietary energy, fat, sugars and protein. There is low consumption of fruit and vegetables universally in West Africa. Overall, the foods consumed are predominantly traditional with the component major food groups within recommended levels. Most of the West African countries are at the early stages of nutrition transition but countries such as Cape Verde, Ghana and Senegal are at the latter stages. In the major cities of the region, children consume energy-dense foods such as candies, ice cream and sweetened beverages up to seven times as frequently as fruit and vegetables. Adult obesity rates have increased by 115 % in 15 years since 2004. In Ghana, the prevalence of overweight/obesity in women has increased from 12·8 % in 1993 to 29·9 % in 2008. In Accra, overweight/obesity in women has increased from 62·2 % in 2003 to 64·9 % in 2009. The age-standardised proportion of adults who engage in adequate levels of physical activity ranges from 46·8 % in Mali to 94·7 % in Benin. The lingering stunting in children and the rising overweight in adults have resulted to a dual burden of malnutrition affecting 16·2 % of mother-child pairs in Cotonou. The prevalence of hypertension has been increased and ranges from 17·6 % in Burkina Faso to 38·7 % in Cape Verde. The prevalence is higher in the cities: 40·2 % in Ougadougou, 46·0 % in St Louis and 54·6 % in Accra. The prevalence of diabetes ranges from 2·5 to 7·9 % but could be as high as 17·9 % in Dakar, Senegal. The consequences of nutrition transition are not only being felt by the persons in the high socioeconomic class, but also in cities such as Accra and Ouagadougou, where at least 19 % of adults from the poorest households are overweight and 19-28 % have hypertension. Concerted national action involving governments, partners, private sector and civil society is needed to re-orient health systems and build capacity to address the dual burden of malnutrition, to regulate the food and beverage industry and to encourage healthy eating throughout the life course.
96 citations
Cites background from "Babies, soft drinks and snacks: a c..."
...Where as the age-standardised prevalence of adult hypertension declined or remained the same in the WHO Regions, that for Africa and South-East Asia increased between 1980 and 2008(74)....
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...The consumption of SSB and sugar snacks in babies and toddlers is relatively common in Africa and Asia((26))....
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...The consumption of SSB and sugar snacks in babies and toddlers is relatively common in Africa and Asia(26)....
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21 Jul 2016
TL;DR: A multidisciplinary analysis of the role of nutrition in generating hierarchical societies and cultivating a global epidemic of chronic diseases suggests that food waste is a major cause of disease in hierarchical societies.
Abstract: Chronic diseases have rapidly become the leading global cause of morbidity and mortality, yet there is poor understanding of this transition, or why particular social and ethnic groups are especially susceptible. In this book, Wells adopts a multidisciplinary approach to human nutrition, emphasising how power relations shape the physiological pathways to obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Part I reviews the physiological basis of chronic diseases, presenting a 'capacity-load' model that integrates the nutritional contributions of developmental experience and adult lifestyle. Part II presents an evolutionary perspective on the sensitivity of human metabolism to ecological stresses, highlighting how social hierarchy impacts metabolism on an intergenerational timescale. Part III reviews how nutrition has changed over time, as societies evolved and coalesced towards a single global economic system. Part IV integrates these physiological, evolutionary and politico-economic perspectives in a unifying framework, to deepen our understanding of the societal basis of metabolic ill-health.
82 citations
References
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TL;DR: It is estimated that undernutrition in the aggregate--including fetal growth restriction, stunting, wasting, and deficiencies of vitamin A and zinc along with suboptimum breastfeeding--is a cause of 3·1 million child deaths annually or 45% of all child deaths in 2011.
5,574 citations
TL;DR: The need for effective interventions starting as early as infancy to reverse anticipated trends of childhood overweight and obesity have increased dramatically since 1990 are confirmed.
2,105 citations
"Babies, soft drinks and snacks: a c..." refers background in this paper
...Processed snack food consumption is also becoming a common occurrence in low- and middle-income countries of Asia, Latin America (Woo et al. 2013) and Africa (Faber & Benadé 2007) where undernutrition is still prevalent and overweight rates in young children are on the rise (de Onis et al. 2010)....
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1,891 citations
TL;DR: The authors consider the feasibility and potential implications of reducing or eliminating the consumption of trans fatty acids from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in the United States.
Abstract: The intake of trans fat has been associated with coronary heart disease, sudden death from cardiac causes, and diabetes. This article reviews the evidence for physiological and cellular effects of trans fatty acids, unsaturated fatty acids with at least one double bond in the trans configuration. The authors consider the feasibility and potential implications of reducing or eliminating the consumption of trans fatty acids from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in the United States.
1,582 citations
"Babies, soft drinks and snacks: a c..." refers background in this paper
...TFA intake is associated with inflammation (Mozaffarian et al. 2006) and an increased risk of fatal coronary heart disease, sudden cardiac death, metabolic syndrome and diabetes in adults (Uauy & Dangour 2009), and is considered a toxic component of foods consumed by children (Food and Agriculture Organization 2010)....
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...TFA intake is associated with inflammation (Mozaffarian et al. 2006) and an increased risk of fatal coronary heart disease, sudden cardiac death, metabolic syndrome and diabetes in adults (Uauy & Dangour 2009), and is considered a toxic component of foods consumed by children (Food and Agriculture…...
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TL;DR: This paper assess the eff ectiveness of self-regulation, public-private partnerships, and public regulation models of interaction with unhealthy commodity industries and conclude that unhealthy commodity industry should have no role in the formation of national or international NCD policy.
1,308 citations