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T plague of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is truly global. Even though their intake is notably greater in developed countries, constituting the majority of the typical food intake in places such as the United Kingdom and United States, for example, UPFs are displacing fresh food in diets on all corners of the globe.

This month, an extensive international analysis on the dangers to well-being of UPFs was published. It alerted that such foods are leaving millions of people to long-term harm, and demanded immediate measures. Previously in the year, an international child welfare organization revealed that a greater number of youngsters around the world were obese than too thin for the historic moment, as junk food overwhelms diets, with the steepest rises in less affluent regions.

A noted nutrition professor, an academic specializing in dietary health at the a prominent Brazilian university, and one of the review's authors, says that businesses motivated by financial gain, not personal decisions, are driving the change in habits.

For parents, it can feel like the entire food system is opposing them. “At times it feels like we have no authority over what we are placing onto our children's meals,” says one mother from South Asia. We conversed with her and four other parents from around the world on the growing challenges and annoyances of providing a healthy diet in the age of UPFs.

Nepal: ‘She Craves Cookies, Chocolate and Juice’

Nurturing a child in this South Asian country today often feels like fighting a losing battle, especially when it comes to food. I cook at home as much as I can, but the second my daughter leaves the house, she is surrounded by colorfully presented snacks and sweetened beverages. She persistently desires cookies, chocolates and packaged fruit juices – products heavily marketed to children. A single pizza commercial on TV is all it takes for her to ask, “Can we have pizza today?”

Even the school environment perpetuates unhealthy habits. Her cafeteria serves flavored drink every Tuesday, which she eagerly awaits. She is given a packet of six cookies from a friend on the school bus and chocolates on birthdays, and encounters a french fry stand right outside her school gate.

Some days it feels like the entire food environment is opposing parents who are just striving to raise well-nourished kids.

As someone associated with the an organization fighting chronic illnesses and heading a project called Promoting Healthy Foods in Schools, I grasp this issue deeply. Yet even with my knowledge, keeping my eight-year-old daughter healthy is extremely challenging.

These ongoing experiences at school, in transit and online make it next to unattainable for parents to limit ultra-processed foods. It is not simply about what kids pick; it is about a food system that normalises and advocates for unhealthy eating.

And the statistics reflects exactly what families like mine are going through. A recent national survey found that over two-thirds of children between six and 23 months ate poor dietary items, and 43% were already drinking sugary drinks.

These figures resonate with what I see every day. A study conducted in the district where I live reported that 18.6% of schoolchildren were overweight and 7.1% were clinically overweight, figures directly linked with the increase in processed food intake and less active lifestyles. Additional analysis showed that many Nepali children eat sweet snacks or processed savoury foods nearly every day, and this regular consumption is tied to high levels of tooth decay.

Nepal urgently needs more robust regulations, healthier school environments and tougher advertising controls. Before that happens, families will continue waging a constant war against junk food – an individual snack bag at a time.

St Vincent and the Grenadines: ‘Greasy, Salty, Sugary Fast Food is the Preference’

My position is a bit different as I was compelled to move from an island in our chain of islands that was ravaged by a powerful storm last year. But it is also part of the bleak situation that is facing parents in a area that is feeling the most severe impacts of climate change.

“The situation definitely deteriorates if a storm or volcanic eruption destroys most of your plant life.”

Prior to the storm, as a food nutrition and health teacher, I was extremely troubled about the increasing proliferation of convenience food outlets. Nowadays, even community markets are complicit in the shift of a country once characterized by a diet of fresh regional fruits and vegetables, to one where fatty, briny, candied fast food, full of synthetic components, is the favorite.

But the scenario definitely intensifies if a hurricane or mountain activity wipes out most of your vegetation. Fresh, healthy food becomes scarce and extremely pricey, so it is really difficult to get your kids to eat right.

Regardless of having a steady job I am shocked by food prices now and have often turned to picking one of items such as peas and beans and animal products when feeding my four children. Offering reduced portions or diminished quantities have also become part of the post-crisis adaptation techniques.

Also it is quite convenient when you are managing a demanding job with parenting, and rushing around in the morning, to just give the children a small amount of cash to buy snacks at school. Sadly, most school tuck shops only offer manufactured munchies and carbonated beverages. The consequence of these difficulties, I fear, is an increase in the already widespread prevalence of chronic conditions such as adult-onset diabetes and cardiovascular strain.

Kampala's Landscape: A Fast-Food Dominated Environment

The logo of a major fried chicken chain stands prominently at the entrance of a commercial complex in a city district, daring you to pass by without stopping at the takeaway window.

Many of the youngsters and guardians visiting the mall have never gone beyond the borders of Uganda. They certainly don’t know about the bygone era of hardship that inspired the founder to start one of the first worldwide restaurant networks. All they know is that the brand name represent all things sophisticated.

At each shopping center and each trading place, there is fast food for all budgets. As one of the costlier choices, the fried chicken chain is considered a treat. It is the place local households go to celebrate birthdays and baptisms. It is the children’s reward when they get a good school report. In fact, they are hoping their parents take them there for the holidays.

“Mom, do you know that some people pack takeaway for school lunch,” my 14-year-old daughter, who attends a school in the area, tells me. She says that on the days they do not pack that, they pack food from a popular east African fast-food chain selling everything from fried breakfasts to burgers.

It is the weekend, and I am only {half-listening|