This sparked a domino impact. The Mexican states Tabasco and Colima quickly adopted go well with. Many others have launched comparable payments. The legal guidelines expressly prohibit donations, gross sales, or provides of sugary drinks and high-calorie packaged meals reminiscent of soda, chips, and sweet to kids underneath 18.
These bans had been initially a part of a technique to manage the meals and beverage firms’ promoting ways. However the native congresses acted autonomously to enact a nationwide labeling law that launched warning symbols for all packaged meals and drinks which can be excessive in sugars, energy, salt, and saturated or trans-fat.
The symbols—stark black cease indicators with written warnings reminiscent of “extra sugar” and “extra sodium”—should be positioned on the entrance of the package deal the place it’s simple to see. These warning indicators will make it simpler to comply with the brand new legal guidelines, serving to individuals to determine what’s junk meals, and never promote or give it to kids.
Momentum for these bans was triggered by the ministry of well being’s communication round COVID-19 prevention—together with the necessary position that meals performs in selling well being and stopping illness. These messages in regards to the significance of wholesome consuming and ingesting additionally appeared within the media, which identified the well being harms of consuming processed meals which can be excessive in sugar, sodium, fats, and empty energy. The undersecretary of well being even referred to as soda “bottled poison.”
“With these bans, Mexico is taking an enormous step ahead in defending and guaranteeing a baby’s proper to a wholesome future and restoration from the pandemic.”
What’s most putting in regards to the junk meals bans in these three states is that they weren’t conceived underneath the native well being legal guidelines, however fairly inside a framework of youngsters’s rights.
This tells us lots about how the well being of a kid is seen in Mexico, particularly associated to the consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor meals. It’s not only a matter of well being or illness prevention, but in addition about the proper kids must be in environments which can be well being selling and freed from unhealthy meals and drinks.
Along with prohibiting unhealthy merchandise, these initiatives additionally goal to advertise consumption of recent, pure, conventional and seasonal meals as the primary choices for youngsters. If carried out efficiently, this might not solely enhance kids’s diet, but in addition have a optimistic financial affect for native producers and conventional cooks.
Now, are these legal guidelines good? And are they utilized completely? No.
The fact is that they’ve encountered various push again from meals and beverage industries. Additionally they require plenty of political will to be carried out and monitored.
However throughout the nation, there’s normal consensus that junk meals and sugary drinks won’t assist us transfer ahead from the pandemic.
Ana participated within the December 2019 Salzburg International Seminar “Halting the Childhood Obesity Epidemic: Identifying Decisive Interventions in Complex Systems,” which was sponsored by the Robert Wooden Johnson Basis as a part of its efforts to learn from abroad to improve health and well-being in the United States.
