INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A sweet, butter-filled bread roll, neatly wrapped in plastic, has become the snack rickshaw rider Jewel Ahmed reaches for when he needs to
bite.Bangladesh is not the only developing country where snacks are ever more prominent in diets, helping fuel busy workers through the day
or children on journeys to and from school, and sometimes even replacing meals
For experts, the rise of unhealthy snack foods is concerning because of potential impacts on long-term health, especially non-communicable
diseases such as diabetes and heart conditions.Ahmed used to eat a far more nutritious diet of fish and vegetables, but rising salinity in
the rivers around his coastal home town of Bhola ended his livelihood in fishing and forced him into the city.Buns in plastic packaging hang
from a snack stall by the side of a road in Dhaka
GuideWhat is ultra-processed food?ShowUltra-processed food involves extremely high levels of manufacturing to produce
It includes all formula milk, many commercially produced baby and toddler foods, fizzy drinks and sweets, fast food, snacks, biscuits and
cakes, as well as mass-produced bread and breakfast cereals, ready meals and desserts.What do these foods contain?Ultra-processed
ingredients include fruit juice concentrates, maltodextrin, dextrose, golden syrup, hydrogenated oils, soya protein isolate, gluten,
Additives such as monosodium glutamate, colourings, thickeners and glazing agents are also ultra-processed.Why does it
matter?Ultra-processed food contains higher levels of salt, sugar, fat and additives that are associated with obesity, cancer, type 2
diabetes and cardiovascular disease
It is also thought that other mechanisms are at play in UPFs being associated with worse health outcomes, including negative effects on the
development of gut microbiota.By Anna BawdenThank you for your feedback.But snacks like bun rotis tend to offer empty calories without key
Ahmed, who often eats only one meal a day, has lost weight in the year since he moved to Dhaka
nutritionist Barry Popkin, who has observed similar trends in other developing countries as they become more urbanised and
industrialised.Even in rural areas, says Popkin, the move from family farming to industrial agriculture has taken people away from their
homes and made them more reliant on quick, often prepackaged and highly processed energy fixes
This has combined with a global spread of snacking, which he says was rare before the 20th century, and increasingly means foods high in
food companies have targeted after saturating the market in richer countries such as the US, where 57% of dietary intake is from
UPFs.Popkin, who specialises in research on UPFs, says this has led to a rise in non-communicable diseases globally, especially because of
high consumption by children.New research shows a global rise in cancers in people under 50, a development that experts say may be partly
due to diets high in UPFs.In December 2019, the World Health Organization published a series of articles in the medical journal the Lancet
Somebody who was undernourished in the first period of life, or maybe during conception, is more likely to develop other overweight and
within countries accompanied by aggressive marketing, especially to children
non-communicable diseases
malnutrition has risen fastest in the poorest countries and is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, while in the 1990s it had been
a problem concentrated in higher-income developing countries.Thomas Reardon, a food system expert at Michigan State University, says the
distinction between a snack and a full meal has collapsed because of changing food systems, with small, portable foods becoming an important
food in Africa has shown some nutritional benefits, such as greater milk consumption through packaged milks, but that up to a third of it
was UPFs that posed challenges to public health.According to the research, sub-Saharan African and south Asia are the regions where the
double burden of malnutrition is most present, affecting 26 countries where efforts to bring down child stunting caused by undernutrition
have not kept up with the rise in numbers of overweight and obese people, driven by UPFs.A roadside kiosk run by Lucy Mwendwa in Nairobi
by streetside vendors.Mwedna says it is not just the quick and convenient energy boost they offer, but also the affordability of corn puffs
This article first appeared/also appeared in theguardian.com
