#alternate alternate alternate Big Food and Rising Obesity in Brazil NYTimes.com no longer supports Internet Explorer 9 or earlier. Please upgrade your browser. LEARN MORE » (BUTTON) Sections (BUTTON) Home (BUTTON) Search Skip to content Skip to navigation View mobile version The New York Times Opinion|Big Food and Rising Obesity in Brazil (BUTTON) Search (BUTTON) Subscribe Now (BUTTON) Log In (BUTTON) 0 (BUTTON) Settings (BUTTON) Close search Site Search Navigation Search NYTimes.com ____________________ (BUTTON) Clear this text input (BUTTON) Go https://nyti.ms/2ymFkI0 1. Loading... See next articles See previous articles Site Navigation Site Mobile Navigation Advertisement Supported by Opinion | Letters Big Food and Rising Obesity in Brazil SEPT. 24, 2017 Continue reading the main story Share This Page Continue reading the main story Photo Nestlé products on sale in a pharmacy in Muana, along the Amazon, Para state. Credit William Daniels for The New York Times To the Editor: Re “How Big Business Got Brazil Hooked on Junk Food” (“Planet Fat” series, front page, Sept. 17): Worldwide, deaths from preventable diet-related illnesses are on the rise, and the processed foods industry, like the global conglomerate Nestlé, are driving this public health scourge. Brazil is a cautionary tale. As a global community, we must stand up to Big Food and its efforts to influence our elected officials and demand real regulation and new policies for public health. The good news is that there are policies that work: restricting marketing to children; promoting healthy food procurement through initiatives like the Good Food Purchasing Program; and passing taxes like the sugary beverage taxes now covering nine million people in the United States and every resident of Mexico and several other countries around the world. ANNA LAPPÉ, CHICAGO The writer is the author of “Diet for a Hot Planet.” To the Editor: Multimillion-dollar companies can spin their mission any way they choose, but to suggest that their products fill a nutritional gap for those in poverty is absurd. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Impoverished people around the globe are struggling to survive, and a cheap diet of sugars, saturated fats, salt and the like may meet a need in the short term, but over all leads to chronic illness, which this population cannot afford to treat, and therefore a continuing cycle of poverty because of an inability to work at a decent job. Continue reading the main story Advertisement Continue reading the main story We can take this further and suggest that endemic poverty and disease lead to unrest around the world. So perhaps these same companies can take another look at their “missions” and make some adjustments. ANNE ROSENBERG BALA CYNWYD, PA. To the Editor: Your article tells a compelling narrative but one told from the perspective of people who have grown up in developed countries with easy access to food and many comforts of life that we take for granted. I did, too, but having worked in Latin America for more than 25 years, I think that the story glosses over what it’s like for a generation finally to have access to many of the things seen only in foreign movies and TV shows. I don’t question the obesity statistics, but much of that comes from the way lives change as a country’s economy develops. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. ____________________ (BUTTON) Sign Up [ ] You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. You are already subscribed to this email. View all New York Times newsletters. * See Sample * Manage Email Preferences * Not you? * Privacy Policy * Opt out or contact us anytime When parents work outside the home, it’s not hard to understand choosing packaged cereal over freshly gathered fruits and nuts for breakfast to feed a growing family. Many people in Latin America appreciate having these options thanks to the multinational companies that have made those products available. To deny to others what those of us in developed countries have had for many years is not too different from the greenhouse gas debate: We’ve got our air-conditioned cars and homes, but now we know better, so those catching up need to figure out a different path. JEFFREY SHARLACH, MIAMI BEACH The writer is the founder of a strategic communications company that provides services to multinational companies in Latin America. Nestlé is not a client. To the Editor: Advances in food processing have contributed significantly to improved health status. Examples include fortification with vitamins and minerals, which has diminished inadequate intake by adding them to common foods; heat pasteurization, which has reduced food-borne illness by killing disease-causing micro-organisms; and canning and freezing, which have extended the shelf life of perishable foods and decreased food waste. But as your article illustrates, there is a darker side to advances in food processing. Somehow these negative advances have overtaken historical benefits. The challenge to the food industry is to shift the balance from less desirable trends that occurred during the last few decades toward using its tremendous creative capacity to shift course and move toward emerging methodologies to improve the quality of the food supply available worldwide. ALICE H. LICHTENSTEIN, BOSTON The writer is a professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University. A version of this letter appears in print on September 25, 2017, on Page A22 of the New York edition with the headline: Big Food and Rising Obesity in Brazil. Today's Paper|Subscribe Continue reading the main story We’re interested in your feedback on this page. Tell us what you think. * * * * What's Next Loading... Go to Home Page » Site Index The New York Times Site Index Navigation News * World * U.S. * Politics * N.Y. * Business * Tech * Science * Health * Sports * Education * Obituaries * Today's Paper * Corrections Opinion * Today's Opinion * Op-Ed Columnists * Editorials * Op-Ed Contributors * Letters * Sunday Review * Video: Opinion Arts * Today's Arts * Art & Design * Books * Dance * Movies * Music * N.Y.C. Events Guide * Television * Theater * Video: Arts Living * Automobiles * Crossword * Food * Education * Fashion & Style * Health * Jobs * Magazine * N.Y.C. 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