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This scourge of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is a worldwide phenomenon. Even though their use is particularly high in Western nations, forming over 50% the typical food intake in nations like Britain and America, for example, UPFs are replacing whole foods in diets on every continent.

Recently, a comprehensive global study on the dangers to well-being of UPFs was issued. It warned that such foods are subjecting millions of people to chronic damage, and urged immediate measures. In a prior announcement, a global fund for children revealed that an increased count of kids around the world were obese than malnourished for the first time, as processed edibles floods diets, with the sharpest climbs in less affluent regions.

A noted nutrition professor, professor of public health nutrition at the University of São Paulo, and one of the study's contributors, says that profit-driven corporations, not consumer preferences, are propelling the shift in eating patterns.

For parents, it can appear that the complete dietary environment is opposing them. “At times it feels like we have zero control over what we are placing onto our children's meals,” says one mother from South Asia. We spoke to her and four other parents from internationally on the increasing difficulties and frustrations of providing a healthy diet in the time of manufactured foods.

In Nepal: Battling a Child's Desire for Packaged Snacks

Bringing up a child in Nepal today often feels like battling an uphill struggle, especially when it comes to food. I cook at home as much as I can, but the second my daughter steps outside, she is encircled by vibrantly wrapped snacks and sugar-laden liquids. She continually yearns for cookies, chocolates and bottled fruit beverages – products heavily marketed to children. A single pizza commercial on TV is all it takes for her to ask, “Is it possible to eat pizza today?”

Even the school environment encourages unhealthy habits. Her school lunchroom serves sweetened fruit juice every Tuesday, which she looks forward to. She is given a six-piece biscuit pack from a friend on the school bus and chocolates on birthdays, and encounters a chip shop right outside her school gate.

At times it feels like the whole nutritional ecosystem is undermining parents who are merely attempting to raise healthy children.

As someone employed by the a national health coalition and heading a project called Encouraging Nutritious Meals in Education, I understand this issue profoundly. Yet even with my knowledge, keeping my school-age girl healthy is exceptionally hard.

These ongoing experiences at school, in transit and online make it next to unattainable for parents to curb ultra-processed foods. It is not simply about what kids pick; it is about a dietary structure that normalises and advocates for unhealthy eating.

And the figures mirrors precisely what parents in my situation are going through. A recent national survey found that 69% of children between six and 23 months ate junk food, and nearly half were already drinking flavored liquids.

These statistics are reflected in what I see every day. A study conducted in the region where I live reported that a notable percentage of schoolchildren were carrying excess weight and 7.1% were suffering from obesity, figures directly linked with the surge in junk food consumption and more sedentary lifestyles. Further research showed that many kids in Nepal eat sweet snacks or manufactured savory snacks almost daily, and this habitual eating is associated with high levels of dental cavities.

This nation urgently needs stronger policies, healthier school environments and stricter marketing regulations. Before that happens, families will continue fighting a daily battle against processed items – one biscuit packet at a time.

St Vincent and the Grenadines: ‘Greasy, Salty, Sugary Fast Food is the Preference’

My position is a bit unique as I was forced to relocate from an island in our chain of islands that was destroyed by a major hurricane last year. But it is also part of the harsh truth that is confronting parents in a region that is experiencing the gravest consequences of climate change.

“Conditions definitely becomes more severe if a hurricane or volcano activity eliminates most of your crops.”

Even before the storm, as a food nutrition and health teacher, I was extremely troubled about the rising expansion of fast food restaurants. Currently, even community markets are participating in the change of a country once defined by a diet of nutritious home-produced fruits and vegetables, to one where oily, salted, sweetened fast food, packed with manufactured additives, is the preference.

But the situation definitely intensifies if a natural disaster or mountain activity wipes out most of your vegetation. Unprocessed ingredients becomes scarce and prohibitively costly, so it is really difficult to get your kids to consume healthy meals.

In spite of having a steady job I am shocked by food prices now and have often resorted to choosing between items such as legumes and pulses and animal products when feeding my four children. Providing less food or smaller servings have also become part of the recovery survival methods.

Also it is very easy when you are managing a stressful occupation with parenting, and scrambling in the morning, to just give the children a little money to buy snacks at school. Regrettably, most school tuck shops only offer ultra-processed snacks and sugary sodas. The consequence of these hurdles, I fear, is an increase in the already widespread prevalence of chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

Uganda: ‘It’s in Every Mall and Every Market’

The symbol of a international restaurant franchise stands prominently at the entrance of a commercial complex in a Kampala neighbourhood, challenging you to pass by without stopping at the drive-through.

Many of the youngsters and guardians visiting the mall have never gone beyond the borders of Uganda. They certainly don’t know about the past financial depression that inspired the founder to start one of the first worldwide restaurant networks. All they know is that the famous acronym represent all things desirable.

In every mall and every market, there is fast food for all budgets. As one of the more expensive options, the fried chicken chain is considered a luxury. It is the place city residents go to mark birthdays and baptisms. It is the children’s prize when they get a positive academic results. In fact, they are hoping their parents take them there for Christmas.

“Mother, do you know that some people take takeaway for school lunch,” my adolescent child, who attends a school in the area, tells me. She says that on the days they do not pack that, they pack food from a popular east African fast-food chain selling everything from fried breakfasts to burgers.

It is Friday evening, and I am only {half-listening|