> At one meeting, a representative from the food industry accused Anvisa of trying to subvert parental authority, saying mothers had the right to decide what to feed their children, recalled Vanessa Schottz, a nutrition advocate.<p>The same argument is used in the US to thwart limitations on sugary beverage purchases and other junk food with SNAP -- these compose 10-20% of purchases, 50% of which goes to Wal-Mart, alongside 2-5x greater premature mortality from cardiac arrest and diabetic related complications.<p><a href="http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303608" rel="nofollow">http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2016.3...</a><p>Incentivizing the poor to hock Nestle timed according to Brazilian food assistance checks is clever. Reminds me of Herbalife, and Betting on Zero -- Hispanic populations, eager to succeed in entrepreneurship, here too are victims of pyramid schemes preying on ill health.
As an American who lived in Brazil for 8 years, honestly I'm not sure this is any worse than traditional food.<p>A typical Brazilian lunch is a piece of meat with beans, sides of rice, french fries, and fried flour (farofa) -- that's right, 3 carbs of empty calories (2 fried) and no real vegetables -- all washed down with mostly-added-sugar "fruit juice concentrate" (cashew apple is really common). Bar snacks are 100% deep-fried, or "pizza" with copious amounts of sugary ketchup (don't ask). Desserts are the sweetest things your tongue has ever touched -- brigadeiros, pudim, essentially all just super-sweet condensed milk.<p>It's not like the traditional Brazilian diet is full of fresh veggies or nutritional variety at all. I mean, I thought us Americans loved our french fries... but the Brazilians have got us beat!
Japan seems to have fought this off. Japan has explicitly rejected "fat acceptance" as public policy. Under the 2008 "Metabo Law", everyone between 40 and 75 is weighed and measured annually and sent to counseling if overweight. Employers are involved and apply pressure to employees.
I saw McDonalds being built in dirt-street towns in Guatemala, I saw lines three blocks long at KFC in South America, and I've seen many Porsches and Ferrarris in the parking lots of American fast food joints in third world countries.<p>I am utterly shocked they have not moved into Africa yet.<p>I've just driven tens of thousands of miles through 17 countries without a single Mcdonalds. Between Morocco and South Africa, there were none [1]. I am shocked they are not in at least Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, etc.<p>I wonder if that's the longest distance in the world that can be driven without one. Or at least the most consecutive countries.<p>(checkout the map)
[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_McDonald's_restaurants" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_McDonal...</a>
I think it's also important to point out that it's not just "western fast food" conglomerates doing all the damage. Frito Lay (Pepsi Co.) had its job cut out for them by local junk food producers so they simply bought them out and stuck their logo on the bag. Bimbo which is a Mexican giant in the processed food industry has been doing exactly the same all across the Andean region.<p>Another very important thing to keep in mind which this article fails to mention is the influence of all the free trade agreements which were signed by countries like Colombia and Perú in recent years. Now it's become more affordable than ever to export "goods" from the U.S into these emerging markets without paying any import duties. That is why you now find supermarkets in emerging nations that bare a strikingly resemblance to their american counterparts. A quick glance through the frozen food section will reveal items that weren't even part of the local diet just a few years ago such as pot pies and tater tots.
I find the title of this link quite funny: Brazil is a western country, even more "west" than Switzerland, where Nestle is from, and with very similar culture to that of Western Europe and the US.<p>Not only that, but Nestle has been in Brazil for almost a century now.
Not to mention we brazilians have been bombarded with fast-food joints in the past few years. My little hometown with no more than 90k habitants got its first Subway. And last year the first Taco Bell in the country came to São Paulo. This is the only one I would miss actually, as I've had enough from the traditional fast-food places.
they claim that a universal income (bolsa familia) is responsible for poor people buying tons of sugary foods. in reality that universal income allows poor people to not starve. why do they buy crap food? because that's what middle class is also eating. why? because of recently unregulated and rampant advertising.
This makes me sad for Brazil.<p>I have heard, though cannot confirm myself, that Japan had one of the healthiest societies in the world until fast food expanded there a couple decades ago, causing many problems common in the States, like obesity and diabetes and blood pressure issues, to significantly increase in frequency there.
So, Brazil is not a Western country? I guess the entire Europe is The East now. Also, why wouldn't they? It's a big market. Everyone loves fast food even though you'll never see anyone admit it.
In Israel fast food costs more than normal food. Vegetables are relatively cheep to the US ($3 for avocado??) And in general "fast" food is not a value people appreciate over "healthy".
One of the ways to fight obesity is by taxation and lowering the costs of healthy food. When salad will cost less than a burger (and there's no economic reason it shouldn't) people will choose it.
I don't doubt that this is all true, but he diet pre-Nestle was hardly superb, Brigadeiro, flan, lots of meat, croquettes, tons of bread... you could do plenty of harm with those traditional foods. What the were not however, was heavily and aggressively marketed, ultra-cheap, and essentially never spoil.