'Hooked after one bite' How parents around the world are battling ultra-processed foods

From Kenya to Nepal, families share their struggles to keep their children away from UPFS and eat a healthier diet instead

- ANTONIO DIAZ/GETTY

T he scourge of ultraprocessed foods (UPFS) is global. While their consumption is particularly high in the west, forming more than half the average diet in the UK and the US, for example, UPFS are replacing fresh food in diets on every continent.

Last month, the world's largest review on the health threats of UPFS was published in the Lancet. Earlier this year Unicef revealed that more children around the world were obese than underweight for the first time, as junk food overwhelms diets, with the steepest rises in low- and middleincome countries.

Carlos Monteiro, professor of public health nutrition at the University of São Paulo, and one of the Lancet series' authors, said that profit-driven corporations, not individual choices, are driving the change in habits.

For parents, it can feel like the entire food system is working against them. We spoke to four parents from around the world on the growing challenges and frustrations of providing a healthy diet in the age of UPFS.

NEPAL

'She craves cookies, chocolate and juice'

Raising a child in Nepal today often feels like trying to swim against the current, especially when it comes to food. I cook at home as much as I can, but the moment my daughter steps outside, she is surrounded by brightly packaged snacks and sugary drinks. She constantly craves cookies, chocolates and packaged fruit juices - products aggressively advertised to children. Even the school environment reinforces unhealthy habits. Her canteen serves sweetened fruit juice every Tuesday.

She receives a biscuit pack from a friend on the school bus and chocolates on birthdays, and faces a chip shop right outside her school gate. Some days it feels like the food environment is working agains parents who are simply trying to raise healthy children.