WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new report by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has revealed that ultra-processed foods are gaining ground among Caribbean and Latin American families.
The report, published on Oct. 23, stated that ultra-processed food, sugary beverages and fast food with poor nutritional quality are replacing more nourishing domestic foods in diets of families in the region.
According to PAHO, the report showed that sales of ultra-processed foods and beverages grew 8.3 percent between 2009 and 2014, the last year for which data were available. The report estimated that those sales continued to grow another 9.2 percent from 2014 to 2019, “generating alarming effects on health and requiring government regulations to reverse this trend.”
“We are observing the beginnings of an epidemic of ultra-processed food consumption,” said Fabio da Silva Gomes, regional advisor in nutrition at PAHO. “Its sales are growing disproportionately in comparison with those of other foods, filling families’ tables with products that do not contribute to good health.”
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Gomes said the trend is promoted by “the marketing and the unrestricted publicity of these products in a market that is practically deregulated in the region.
“We need governments to establish policies that restrict sales of these products,” da Silva Gomes added. “Ultra-processed products cannot form the basis of our nutrition. They can’t be an essential product in our diets.”
Together, 43 percent of what these products contribute is sugar, the report stated, adding that soft drinks, fresh and salted snacks, cookies, pies, cakes and desserts, and sauces and dressings were “especially problematic.”
The report noted ultra-processed products typically contain little or no whole foods.
