A government-sponsored junk food ban in schools across Mexico took effect on Saturday, officials said, as the country tries to tackle one of the world\u2019s worst obesity and diabetes epidemics. <\/p>\n
The health guidelines, first published last fall, take a direct shot at salty and sweet processed products that have become a staple for generations of Mexican schoolchildren, such as sugary fruit drinks, packaged chips, artificial pork rinds and soy-encased, chili-flavored peanuts. <\/p>\n
Announcing the ban had become law, Mexico\u2019s Education Ministry posted on X: \u201cFarewell, junk food!\u201d And it encouraged parents to support the government\u2019s crusade by cooking healthy meals for their kids. <\/p>\n
Mexico\u2019s ambitious attempt to remake its food culture and reprogram the next generation of consumers is being watched closely around the world as governments struggle to turn the tide on a global obesity epidemic. <\/p>\n
In the United States, for instance, the Trump administration\u2019s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has vowed to upend the nation\u2019s food system and \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d by targeting ultra-processed foods to curb surging obesity and disease. <\/p>\n
Under Mexico\u2019s new order, schools must phase out any food and beverage displaying even one black warning logo marking it as high in salt, sugar, calories and fat. Mexico implemented that compulsory front-of-package labeling system in 2020. <\/p>\n
Enforced from Monday morning, the start of the school week, the junk food ban also requires schools to serve more nutritious alternatives to junk food, like bean tacos, and offer plain drinking water. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is much better to eat a bean taco than a bag of potato chips,\u201d said Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has championed the effort. <\/p>\n
Mexico\u2019s children consume more junk food than anywhere else in Latin America, according to UNICEF, which classifies the nation\u2019s childhood obesity epidemic as an emergency. Sugary drinks and highly processed foods account for 40% of the total calories that children consume in a day, the agency reports. <\/p>\n
One-third of Mexican children are already considered overweight or obese, according to government statistics. <\/p>\n
School administrators found in violation of the order face stiff fines, ranging from $545 to $5,450. <\/p>\n
But enforcement poses a challenge in a country where previous junk food bans have struggled to gain traction and monitoring has been lax across Mexico\u2019s 255,000 schools, many of which lack water fountains and even reliable internet and electricity. <\/p>\n
It also wasn\u2019t immediately clear how the government would forbid the sale of junk food on sidewalks outside school campuses, where street vendors typically hawk candy, chips, nachos and ice cream to kids during recess and after the school day ends. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A government-sponsored junk food ban in schools across Mexico took effect on Saturday, officials said, as the country tries to tackle one of the world\u2019s worst obesity and diabetes epidemics. The health guidelines, first published last fall, take a direct shot at salty and sweet processed products that have become a staple for generations of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}