Introduction

Brazil is facing a critical public health challenge – obesity, especially obesity among children. There are several factors that are accountable for Brazil's alarming rate of obesity, but the most apparent one is a high-calorie and nutritionally poor diet, which is mainly caused by the promotion of processed food products distributed by big food and beverage companies. In recent years, developed countries are better informed of health and nutrition, so they are shifting toward healthier diet and lifestyle as they have more access and financial means to consume fresh food. This trend forced big food and beverage companies as well as supermarkets that produce highly processed food to change their target to developing and low-income countries. To low-income families and people who don’t have access to food, they must depend their livelihood on processed food for three main reasons: (i) it is more accessible and affordable than fresh food; (ii) processed food delivery service in big food and beverage companies provide jobs and become a source of income for low-income families; (iii) it is a solution for parents that are busy making money and don’t have time to feed their children.

The food system that big food and beverage companies created has made numerous families in Brazil live dependently on processed food for income and sustenance. Although this ecosystem is economically advantageous for now, it can cause dire consequences in terms of public health in the long run for Brazil, in which childhood obesity is the most critical one. Children are addicted to processed and hyperpalatable food with little physical activity, so they are prone to obesity and other chronic diseases when they grow up. Consequently, these diseases continue to be passed on to the next generation and the loop of obesity and health issues can never stop.

Therefore, it is crucial to recognize the main challenges that Brazil is facing. The case study of Nestlé in Brazil is analyzed in order to illustrate the impact of processed food on the epidemic of obesity, thereby suggesting resolutions that can either prevent or mitigate childhood obesity in Brazil.

Current Situation

Globally, sixty-five percent of the population live in countries that have the mortality rate of obesity considerably higher than that of underweight. This population indeed accounts for all high-income, middle-income and low-income countries. Obesity is a pressing concern worldwide because it is the main reason for various chronic and non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, ischemic heart disease and various types of cancer (1). The seriousness of obesity can be shown in the United States’ s annual spending for the treatment of obesity, reaching up to $344 billion in 2018. A forecast even shows that if this trend persists, there is a possibility that all adults in the US will be overweight or obese by 2048, a self-inflicted catastrophe from socioeconomic point of view (2).

Nevertheless, the US is not the only country that has to deal with obesity. A generation ago, when talking about obesity and diabetes, people may have immediately associated it with developed countries such as the United States or European countries in general, where they consume a large quantity of dairy products and have easy access to food products. Developing countries, on the other hand, were assumed to suffer from mostly infectious diseases and malnutrition. However, in the past few decades, the table has been turned. Countries once struggling with hunger are now facing an increasing number of people who are overweight and obese because of the ubiquity of high-calorie yet nutrition-poor food (3).

Obesity Epidemic in Brazil

According to the World Economic Situation Prospects published by the United Nation in 2020, Brazil is among countries that have a developing economy (4) . In recent years, accelerating modernization and urbanization in Brazil has brought about drastic changes in Brazilians’ eating habits and lifestyle – ultra-processed food products containing a high amount of sodium, saturated fatty acids and refined sugar are eaten more while fresh food especially fruits and vegetables see a decline in consumption. Besides nutrition-poor diets, the lack of physical activities among Brazilians along with an increased use of smartphones, video games and television has indeed exacerbated health issues of Brazilians. Over the course of 15 years, Brazil has witnessed a reversal of trend - from a large number of famine sufferers in the past to an increase in obesity patients, which include children. Among the number of people who suffer from obesity, children are indeed the most alarming group because they are unconsciously fed with these kinds of food and accustomed to a sedentary lifestyle at home because of the rise of digital devices. For such reasons, children have been the target group for developing preventative and mitigating measures for obesity in Brazil(5) . Obesity in children has become the most critical public health issues of the 21st century as they are prone to become obese and develop more serious chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases when they grow up, which may lead to premature disability and mortality (6).

According to nutritionists worldwide, there is a strong correlation between processed food and the epidemic of obesity. As reported by Euromonitor, from 2011 to 2016 alone, the processed food industry all over the world has grown 25 percent, in comparison with 10 percent in the US. According to a report by the World Health Organization in 2013, since the beginning of 2000, Latin America had witnessed a drastic increase up to 200 percent in sales of carbonated soft drinks, which was much higher than that of North America (7). This shows that big companies in producing processed food have been dominating the market in Latin American countries, in which Brazil is among countries that are most influenced by this takeover.

Nestlé in Brazil

In recent years, the strategy of Nestlé as well as other food and beverage companies like Nestlé, PepsiCo or General Mills is to target developing countries like Brazil as sales in developed countries drop by boosting marketing activities and implementing door-to-door delivery service. In 2017, Nestlé created jobs for 21,000 Brazilians, whose main job is to deliver its products directly to the doorstep of around 250,000 households, and trained 7,000 young people under 30 under an apprenticeship in 2015.These sales teams contribute to the transformation of the food system in Brazil, in which food products and sugary beverages produced in Western style are delivered to the remotest corners of Latin American, American, African and Asian countries. This door-to-door delivery model simplifies food access for the poorest Brazilians, especially those who do not live near a supermarket. Nestlé claimed to have delivered the food to 700,000 low-income consumers who can now afford and consume food containing vitamin A, iron and zinc, the top three nutritional deficiencies in Brazil (8).

Two decades ago, Nestlé positioned itself as a company that is committed to the “nutrition, health and wellness” of the community. The company claims to have cut down on the amount of salt, sugar and fat in more than 9000 products and added vitamins as well as minerals to their food stuff. Among 800 products that Nestlé’s vendors sell in Brazil, there are “healthy” options such as whole-grain cereal (Nesfit), low-fat yogurt (Molico) with very little sugar (6 grams) or infant cereals packed with vitamins, iron and probiotics. Nevertheless, their customers mostly opt for more sugar-packed, high-calorie products like Kit-kats, Nestlé Greek Red Berry Yogurt with the sugar level exceeding World Health Organization’s recommended daily limit (9). It can be shown that Nestlé did make an effort in making their products healthier, but they are not as in demand as those unhealthy processed foods. Therefore, it is crucial to educate this consumer group about the products that they purchase.

References

1. Ulijaszek, S. J. (2017). In Models of obesity: from ecology to complexity in science and policy (p. 2). essay, Cambridge University Press.
2. Lang, T., & Rayner, G. (2012). Ecological public health: the 21st century’s big idea? An essay by Tim Lang and Geof Rayner. BMJ : British Medical Journal, 345.
3. Gostin, L. (2014). Global Health Law. Harvard University Press. Retrieved July 6, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wpnjc
4. United Nations (2020) World Economic Situation Prospects 2020. Retrieved July 6, 2021, from https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/WESP2020_Annex.pdf
5. NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC) (2017). Worldwide trends in body-mass index, underweight, overweight, and obesity from 1975 to 2016: a pooled analysis of 2416 population-based measurement studies in 128·9 million children, adolescents, and adults. Lancet (London, England), 390(10113), 2627–2642. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32129-3
6. Ibid
7. Jaime, P. C., da Silva, A. C., Gentil, P. C., Claro, R. M., & Monteiro, C. A. (2013). Brazilian obesity prevention and control initiatives. Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, 14 Suppl 2, 88–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12101
8. Jacobs, A., & Richtel, M. (2017, September 16). How Big Business Got Brazil Hooked on Junk Food. The New York Times.
9. Ibid