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The scourge of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is a worldwide phenomenon. Even though their use is particularly high in the west, making up more than half the usual nourishment in places such as the United Kingdom and United States, for example, UPFs are displacing fresh food in diets on each part of the world.

This month, a comprehensive global study on the dangers to well-being of UPFs was released. It warned that such foods are exposing millions of people to chronic damage, and called for urgent action. In a prior announcement, a global fund for children revealed that more children around the world were overweight than underweight for the historic moment, as unhealthy snacks dominates diets, with the sharpest climbs in developing nations.

Carlos Monteiro, an academic specializing in dietary health at the University of São Paulo, and one of the analysis's writers, says that companies focused on earnings, not personal decisions, are propelling the change in habits.

For parents, it can feel like the complete dietary environment is opposing them. “Sometimes it feels like we have absolutely no power over what we are serving on our kid’s plate,” says one mother from South Asia. We spoke to her and four other parents from internationally on the growing challenges and irritations of providing a nutritious food regimen in the age of UPFs.

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

Bringing up a child in the Himalayan nation today often feels like fighting a losing battle, 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 colorfully presented snacks and sugary drinks. She persistently desires cookies, chocolates and bottled fruit beverages – products heavily marketed to children. Just one pizza commercial on TV is all it takes for her to ask, “Can we have pizza today?”

Even the academic atmosphere perpetuates unhealthy habits. Her school lunchroom serves sweetened fruit juice every Tuesday, which she eagerly awaits. She is given a small package of biscuits from a friend on the school bus and chocolates on birthdays, and confronts a snack bar right outside her school gate.

At times it feels like the entire food environment is working against parents who are merely attempting to raise healthy children.

As someone working in the an organization fighting chronic illnesses and heading a project called Promoting Healthy Foods in Schools, I understand this issue deeply. Yet even with my knowledge, keeping my young child healthy is extremely challenging.

These constant encounters at school, in transit and online make it almost unfeasible for parents to limit ultra-processed foods. It is not only about what kids pick; it is about a nutritional framework that encourages and fosters unhealthy eating.

And the statistics mirrors precisely what households such as my own are going through. A demographic health study found that 69% of children between six and 23 months ate poor dietary items, and 43% were already drinking sweetened beverages.

These numbers resonate with what I see every day. Research conducted in the district where I live reported that almost one in five of schoolchildren were overweight and a smaller yet concerning fraction were clinically overweight, figures closely associated with the increase in junk food consumption and increasingly inactive lifestyles. Another study showed that many youngsters of the country eat sweet snacks or manufactured savory snacks on a regular basis, and this frequent intake is associated with high levels of dental cavities.

Nepal urgently needs tighter rules, improved educational settings and more stringent promotion limits. Before that happens, families will continue waging a constant war 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 different as I was forced to relocate from an island in our group of isles that was destroyed by a major hurricane last year. But it is also part of the bleak situation that is confronting parents in a region that is feeling the most severe impacts of environmental shifts.

“The circumstances definitely deteriorates if a cyclone or volcano activity eliminates most of your crops.”

Even before the storm, as a nutrition instructor, I was extremely troubled about the increasing proliferation of quick-service eateries. Currently, even community markets are involved in the transformation of a country once defined by a diet of nutritious home-produced fruits and vegetables, to one where greasy, salty, sugary fast food, loaded with manufactured additives, is the favorite.

But the condition definitely worsens if a hurricane or mountain activity destroys most of your produce. Unprocessed ingredients becomes scarce and very expensive, so it is really difficult to get your kids to consume healthy meals.

Despite having a steady job I flinch at food prices now and have often resorted to selecting from items such as vegetables and animal products when feeding my four children. Providing less food or reduced helpings have also become part of the post-disaster coping strategies.

Also it is very easy when you are managing a stressful occupation with parenting, and hurrying about in the morning, to just give the children a couple of coins to buy snacks at school. Unfortunately, most educational snack bars only offer ultra-processed snacks and carbonated beverages. The outcome of these hurdles, I fear, is an growth in the already epidemic rates of non-communicable illnesses such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

The Allure of Fast Food in Uganda

The symbol of a major fried chicken chain stands prominently at the entrance of a shopping center in a Kampala neighbourhood, tempting you to pass by without stopping at the takeaway window.

Many of the children and parents visiting the mall have never traveled past the borders of Uganda. They certainly don’t know about the bygone era of hardship that motivated the founder to start one of the first global eatery brands. All they know is that the brand name represent all things sophisticated.

In every mall and every market, there is quick-service cuisine for every pocket. As one of the more expensive options, the fried chicken chain is considered a special occasion. It is the place local households go to celebrate birthdays and baptisms. It is the children’s incentive 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 pack 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 morning meals to burgers.

It is the weekend, and I am only {half-listening|