Mexico is the country with the
highest obesity rate in the world.
Around 32% of Mexicans are obese
and another 39% is overweight.
According to the World Health
Organization, Mexicans are
exposed to high-fat, high-sugar,
high-salt and high-calorie
ultra-processed foods. Foods that
tend to be lower in cost, but also
lower in nutrient quality. Additio-
nally, soft drink consumption is
about 150 liters per person a year,
according to the industry.
Moreover, due to the urban
lifestyle, there has been a move
from the traditional Mexican diet
- based on home cooking of
minimally processed foods from
scratch - towards highly processed
foods. The home cooked diet is
replaced by foods made in facto-
ries. In other words: Mexicans
exercise less, cook less and eat
more highly-processed food
Ana Carla Cepeda López
,
PhD student Wageningen
University en verbonden
aan de University of
Monterrey (Mexico)
COLUMN
Fighting obesity
in Mexico
products than they used to.
In response to the obesity epide-
mic, legislators approved a fiscal
food policy on 31 October 2013,
which consists of special taxes for
sugary beverages (one peso per
liter) and an 8% tax to junk food.
The latter is classified as non-basic
food products that provide 275 kcal
or more for every 100 gram.
Considering the
nutritional value
Although this initiative seems like
a good effort of the government to
counteract obesity, there are some
issues that should be taken into
consideration. Since food taxes
may reinforce efforts to educate
consumers, the definition used to
classify ‘unhealthy food’ might be
confusing as it is only focused on
calories without considering the
nutritional value. This could
encourage food industries to
reformulate products according to
calories - for example replacing
sugars with sweeteners - rather
than improving nutrient content
and quality. This was already
announced by the biggest Mexican
bakery industry. Contradictorily,
the National Commission of
Physical Culture and Sports
(CONADE), a Mexican government
institution in charge of developing
and implementing state policies to
encourage the population to
exercise and to participate in
sports, will be cut by about 40% in
2014. Conclusions from different
studies suggest that discouraging
junk food consumption by a
modest tax (<20%) would yield
substantial revenues to govern-
ments, but is unlikely to discoura-
ge consumer choices, hence affect
obesity rates. In order to have an
impact, this measure should be
combined with additional inter-
ventions like healthy food subsi-
dies and health education.
Currently there are some initiatives
like a healthy food stamp, but so
far the strategy is unclear.
A complete design of a strategy to
improve health of the Mexican
population will be challenging but
it is absolutely necessary and it
definitely needs to happen in
parallel with the introduction of
health related food taxes in order
to alleviate the burden of obesity
for future generations.
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Column
Suiker in perspectief, december 2013 / januari 2014
