In Brazil, there have been an added 1 million cases of obesity every year. China has almost 50 million cases of obese children, which may or may not have to do with the old one child policy and the culture of raising children. Since the 1970s, obesity has tripled globally. The first part of it is what we discussed in class, socioeconomics and poverty.
In the early 70s, the price of food went up. So Nixon, being the economic genius that he is *sarcasm*, encouraged farmers to grow more corn, which led to excess high-fructose corn syrup, which is cheaper than sugar. Because of this cheaper costs, high fructose corn syrup started being used by a bunch of foods like bread, ketchup, chips, and most importantly: soda.
These are correlations that don't paint the entire picture of the cause of global obesity. Another side of it is corporate greed. (Fun fact: CapriSuns are just sugar water...I used to think it was juice)
Around 20 years ago, scientists began to publish papers about how bad sodas were for consumers, so Coca Cola funded around 400 academic papers to undermine the connection between diet and weight. Coke tried to point out that too many people were worried about what they were eating, and not enough about their exercise regimen. Everyone disliked that.
This isn't the first time Coke has tried this either. In the 1970s, Coke became the first American company to enter communist China's economy. In the 40+ years there, the number of obese individuals went from 10% to 32%. Now it controls over 1/2 of the soft drink market in China. When China tried to control Coke consumption, Coke pulled the same act they did in the U.S., but it actually worked: policies were enacted to encourage people to exercise more.
But by far the country that has been affected the worst is Mexico. With the NAFTA free trade deal, U.S. had a dumping ground for all of its cheap, processed junk food in return of over half of Mexico's fresh fruits and vegetables (like your fresha vocados). Before NAFTA, 34% of Mexico was overweight or obese; today, over 75% are obese. Mexico has also become the leading consumer of Coke in the world, and now the leading cause of death in Mexico is diabetes.
With free trade and interconnected economies, the markets of each country becomes a lot more complex. We are seeing a new age of obesity around the world, all stemming from private American companies having a dominant influence in the world.
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