Does consumption of processed foods explain disparities in the body weight of individuals? The case of Guatemala

Abstract

Overweight/obesity, caused by the 'nutrition transition', is identified as one of the leading risk factors for non-communicable mortality. The nutrition transition in developing countries is associated with a major shift from the consumption of staple crops and whole grains to highly and partially processed foods. This study examines the contribution of processed foods consumption to the prevalence of overweight/obesity in Guatemala using generalized methods of moments (GMM) regression. The results show that all other things remaining constant, a 10% point increase in the share of partially processed foods from the total household food expenditure increases the BMI of family members (aged 10 years and above) by 3.95%. The impact of highly processed foods is much stronger. A 10% point increase in the share of highly processed food items increases the BMI of individuals by 4.25%, ceteris paribus. The results are robust when body weight is measured by overweight/obesity indicators. These findings suggest that increasing shares of partially and highly processed foods from the total consumption expenditure could be one of the major risk factors for the high prevalence of overweight/obesity in the country.

Do supermarkets contribute to the obesity pandemic in developing countries?

“…Buying in a supermarket is associated with a 23 percentage point lower probability (P < 0·001) of severe stunting. Control variables for these child/adolescent models were chosen based on the broad nutrition and health literature (16,19,(42)(43)(44)(45)(46) . Factors that contribute to overnutrition may be somewhat different from factors that contribute to undernutrition, which is why model specifications in Table 3 are not uniform for the different nutritional outcome variables.…”

“…Several studies suggest that the spread of supermarkets leads to dietary changes for urban consumers (12,(15)(16)(17) . Most of this work shows that supermarket purchase is associated with increased consumption of energy-dense, processed foods (12,15,16) , although in one case supermarkets were found to increase dietary quality (17) . Research on the impact of supermarkets on consumer nutritional status in developing countries is rare.…”

Public Health Nutritionspecial issue on ultra-processed foods

“…Findings from the studies in this special issue challenge that assertion and demonstrate an association between higher consumption of ultra-processed foods and poorer nutritional intakes, including higher intakes of energy and free/added sugar (9,11) and lower intakes of fibre (9) , micronutrients (9) and protein (8) . Epidemiological evidence has previously demonstrated that ultra-processed food consumption is associated with poorer diet quality in the USA (13) , Canada (14) and Brazil (15) ; obesity in Brazil (16) , Guatemala (17) , Spain (18) and Sweden (19) ; hypertension in Spain (20) ; metabolic syndrome in Brazil (21) ; and dyslipidaemia in children in Brazil (22) . Papers in this special issue reinforce the aetiology between ultra-processed food consumption and nutritional outcomes and chronic conditions, and extend such evidence to new populations.…”

The nutrition transition and indicators of child malnutrition

“…In any case, the rise of supermarkets and other modern retail outlets is associated with changing lifestyles and higher consumption of processed foods (Popkin, 2006;Hawkes, 2008;Asfaw, 2008;Asfaw, 2011;Rischke et al, 2014). Hence, the share of modern retail in grocery sales seem to be a suitable proxy for the nutrition transition.…”