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The scourge of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is a worldwide phenomenon. Even though their use is particularly high in developed countries, forming over 50% the average diet in the UK and the US, for example, UPFs are displacing fresh food in diets on each part of the world.

This month, the world’s largest review on the health threats of UPFs was published. It warned that such foods are exposing millions of people to chronic damage, and urged urgent action. Earlier this year, a global fund for children revealed that an increased count of kids around the world were suffering from obesity than malnourished for the historic moment, as junk food floods diets, with the sharpest climbs in low- and middle-income countries.

Carlos Monteiro, professor of public health nutrition at the University of São Paulo, and one of the review's authors, says that businesses motivated by financial gain, not personal decisions, are propelling the change in habits.

For parents, it can appear that the whole nutritional landscape is working against them. “On occasion it feels like we have zero control over what we are placing onto our children's meals,” says one mother from the Indian subcontinent. We conversed with her and four other parents from around the world on the growing challenges and irritations of providing a balanced nourishment in the age of UPFs.

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

Bringing up a child in Nepal today often feels like fighting a losing battle, especially when it comes to food. I make food at home as much as I can, but the moment my daughter goes out, she is bombarded with vibrantly wrapped snacks and sugar-laden liquids. She constantly craves cookies, chocolates and packaged fruit juices – products aggressively advertised to children. Just one pizza commercial on TV is enough for her to ask, “Can we have pizza today?”

Even the school environment encourages unhealthy habits. Her school lunchroom serves sugary juice every Tuesday, which she anxiously anticipates. She receives a small package of biscuits from a friend on the school bus and chocolates on birthdays, and confronts a chip shop right outside her school gate.

Some days it feels like the complete dietary landscape is undermining parents who are just striving to raise healthy children.

As someone associated with the an organization fighting chronic illnesses and leading a project called Encouraging Nutritious Meals in Education, I understand this issue thoroughly. Yet even with my expertise, keeping my eight-year-old daughter 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 just about what kids pick; it is about a nutritional framework that makes standard and promotes unhealthy eating.

And the statistics mirrors precisely what parents in my situation are experiencing. A demographic health study found that 69% of children between six and 23 months ate unhealthy foods, and nearly half were already drinking flavored liquids.

These statistics echo what I see every day. Research conducted in the district where I live reported that 18.6% of schoolchildren were carrying excess weight and a smaller yet concerning fraction were suffering from obesity, figures closely associated with the increase in unhealthy snacking and more sedentary lifestyles. Another study showed that many kids in Nepal eat candy or salty packaged items almost daily, and this regular consumption is tied to high levels of oral health problems.

The country urgently needs stronger policies, better nutritional atmospheres in schools and more stringent promotion limits. Until then, families will continue engaging in an ongoing struggle against processed items – an individual snack bag 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 compelled to move from an island in our chain of islands that was devastated by a major hurricane last year. But it is also part of the bleak situation that is confronting parents in a area that is enduring the very worst effects of global warming.

“Conditions definitely deteriorates if a cyclone or mountain explosion wipes out most of your crops.”

Even before the storm, as a food nutrition and health teacher, I was very worried about the rising expansion of convenience food outlets. Nowadays, even local corner stores are complicit in the transformation 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 condition definitely deteriorates if a severe weather event or mountain activity destroys most of your produce. Unprocessed ingredients becomes scarce and prohibitively costly, so it is incredibly challenging to get your kids to consume healthy meals.

Regardless of having a regular work I wince at food prices now and have often turned to choosing between items such as legumes and pulses and animal products when feeding my four children. Providing less food or reduced helpings have also become part of the recovery survival methods.

Also it is quite convenient when you are juggling a demanding job with parenting, and rushing around in the morning, to just give the children a little money to buy snacks at school. Sadly, most campus food stalls only offer manufactured munchies and carbonated beverages. The consequence of these challenges, I fear, is an rise in the already widespread prevalence of lifestyle diseases such as adult-onset diabetes and hypertension.

The Allure of Fast Food in Uganda

The symbol of a global fast-food brand towers conspicuously at the entrance of a mall in a urban area, tempting you to pass by without stopping at the quick service lane.

Many of the kids and caregivers visiting the mall have never traveled past the borders of this East African nation. They certainly don’t know about the bygone era of hardship that led the founder to start one of the first global eatery brands. All they know is that the famous acronym represent all things modern.

Throughout commercial complexes and every market, there is quick-service cuisine for every pocket. As one of the costlier choices, the fried chicken chain is considered a treat. It is the place Kampala’s families go to mark birthdays and baptisms. It is the children’s incentive when they get a favorable grades. In fact, they are hoping their parents take them there for festive celebrations.

“Mum, do you know that some people take fast food for school lunch,” my teenage girl, 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|