MEXICO: Mexican health officials battle unhealthy diets as child obesity rates rise steeply

Record ID: 303894

  • Title: MEXICO: Mexican health officials battle unhealthy diets as child obesity rates rise steeply
  • Date: 25th March 2011
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (RECENT) (REUTERS) GIRL EATING A FRIED POTATO GIRLS STANDING OUTSIDE SCHOOL GIRL HOLDING A TACO VARIOUS OF OVERWEIGHT CHILDREN AT SCHOOL
  • Embargoed: 9th April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico, Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Health,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA677QN3GUZUSEAGETALU4TKH7Q
  • Story Text: Mexico's authorities have warned that the country's child obesity rate has reached alarming levels as some 4.5 million kids aged between five and 12 years old are overweight.
    Health and education officials have implemented anti-obesity programs in schools with bans on junk food and soft drinks rich in salt, sugar and saturated and trans fats.
    Yet, most children still have sweets and greasy treats within reach in food carts and shops.
    Elementary school director Maria Teresa Zamorano said that parents also contributed to their children's unhealthy diet.
    "There are many obese children in schools because even though we work with them inside schools, even though education authorities tell us 'you shouldn't sell this', outside the school there are many things for sale and their parents buy them," she said.
    In Mexico, unlike developed countries, children are not given lunch at school, which makes the control of their diet a much harder task for authorities.
    Retired teacher Elisa Arredondo Hernandez said the kids' diet should be observed since their first years in school and at home.
    "I think obesity comes from the family circle, where there should be a good diet. In the kindergartens the diet must be under supervision and organized in order to nourish the children," she said.
    Mexico has the second highest obesity rate in the world while the United States heads the list. Nearly 70 percent of Mexican adults are overweight and four in every 10 children are obese.
    Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos has announced that junk food, sweets and sodas ads will soon be banned from commercial breaks in children's shows.
    Alejandro Calvillo, director of the non-governmental organization "El Poder del Consumidor" (The power of the consumer), which sets out to defend consumers rights, said the problem has not been properly tackled by authorities because they continue to support the economic interests of food processing plants and the bottling industry.
    "In Mexico the consumption of what has been popularly called as junk food is extremely high. The consumption of soft drinks is one of the highest in the world. Perhaps we were in second place, but I believe we are close of being the firsts in soda consumption. There are three, four, five companies that have a huge economic power and when someone tries to make some kind of regulation that would provide a healthier environment for children, like having healthy food in schools, those companies -- which benefit hugely from the sale of these (junk) foods -- make a strong lobby for those regulations not come into action," he said.
    However, in spite of efforts carried out by officials, the number of obese children in the country continues to grow.
    Villalobos said the problem of soaring obesity rates were the increase of health problems like diabetes.
    "The problem is, in a medium term vision, that if we don't halt obesity in children we are going to have more diabetic kids, more children with high blood pressure and more heart problems in earlier ages," he said.
    According to Mexico's Health Ministry, child obesity costs the country 4.4 billion dollars annually due to illnesses linked to overweight such as diabetes, which killed over 72,000 Mexicans in 2010.
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