Chops Mexico
Mexico Is One Of The Fattest Countries In The World
Mexico put its schoolchildren on a dietary regime at the beginning of the year. But as often occurs with New Year’s resolutions, there are several ways to cheat. Here is some of what is allowed for sale in schools under new guidelines that are intended to combat childhood obesity: lollipops, potato and corn chips (in multiple guises), and cookies (complemented by marshmallow or chocolate filling). But the message is getting through, sort of. Several NPR books point out that portions verge on the miniature; sugar is limited; the chips are baked, not fried; and soft drinks are banned in elementary schools. “My doctor told me that I had to drink water to look after my health,” said a bulky 14-year-old. Gone are the grease-drenched sandwiches and deep-fried pork rinds that he used to buy. “They banned them,” he said as classmates wandered by clutching foil packets of cookies and chips. “More water, that’s better.” By all measures, Mexico is one of the heaviest countries in the world, and the obesity starts early. One in three youngsters is awfully overweight or even obese, according to the government. So the nation’s health and education officials stepped in last year to limit what schools could sell at recess. (Schools in Mexico do not provide lunch, which is a point that’s well covered by several good books on this very subject.) The officials quickly became snared in a web of special interests led by Mexico’s powerful snack food companies, which found support from regulators in the Ministry of the Economy. The result was a knot of rules that went into effect on January 1.
“The net of all this is a regulatory Frankenstein,” said Mexico’s most voluble opponent of junk food, chiefly soft drinks, in the schools. “They are surrendering a captive market to the companies to generate consumers at a young age.” Mexican officials claim that the new rules are positive, even though sections of the original plan have been weakened. “We managed to do the most important things, which was to pull out the soft drinks and to get the composition of foods changed,” said Mexico’s health minister. In these great books, he estimates that one-third of Mexico’s health care spending goes to fight diseases related to obesity. The snack food companies’ concerns may go beyond their sales in Mexican schools, the health minister said. If Mexico sets a precedent, he said, other countries may follow suit. “We had to negotiate and negotiate, and it suddenly got complicated,” she said. “They tried to drag out the timing until finally we just imposed and we applied the rules.” The education minister said the new rules had removed 90 percent of fried foods from schools. “That is an enormously aggressive change,” he said. But he stopped short at a suggestion that all junk food should be banned from schools. “The central issue is to educate children to exercise moderation in what they eat and emphasize healthier products,” he said. It is a high-minded approach at odds with the scene during a recent recess period at a downtown Mexico City middle school.
When the bell rang at 10:50 a.m., children gushed onto a tiny patio, where someone was selling chicken sandwiches. Mindful of the new guidelines, this vendor has been experimenting with healthier foods, bringing oranges and once offering a salad of chopped nuts, raisins, lettuce and apples. It was not a popular offering, the vendor’s assistant said, who sells the school’s packaged snack food. “When we bring things like that to the patio, they attack me in there,” he said gesturing at his closetlike store, where cookies, bran bars and juices were displayed on wooden shelves. The food companies, including multinationals in Europe and the United States, say their new portfolio of school snacks are evidence that they are committed to combating the problem. But they also complain that they are forced to compete with street vendors who gather outside school gates to sell inexpensive junk food to children as they head home.
Big Love – Lois chops Hollis’ arm off