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This menace of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is an international crisis. While their use is especially elevated in Western nations, making up more than half the typical food intake in nations like Britain and America, for example, UPFs are displacing whole foods in diets on each part of the world.

In the latest development, the world’s largest review on the risks to physical condition of UPFs was released. It warned that such foods are exposing millions of people to persistent health issues, and called for urgent action. In a prior announcement, a major children's agency revealed that an increased count of kids around the world were suffering from obesity than underweight for the historic moment, as unhealthy snacks dominates diets, with the most dramatic increases in low- and middle-income countries.

A noted nutrition professor, professor of public health nutrition at the University of São Paulo, and one of the study's contributors, says that companies focused on earnings, not consumer preferences, are propelling the transformation in dietary behavior.

For parents, it can appear that the whole nutritional landscape is opposing them. “At times it feels like we have no authority over what we are serving on our children's meals,” says one mother from South Asia. We spoke to her and four other parents from across the globe on the growing challenges and irritations of supplying a balanced nourishment in the time of manufactured foods.

In Nepal: Battling a Child's Desire for Packaged Snacks

Raising a child in this South Asian country today often feels like fighting a losing battle, especially when it comes to food. I make food at home as much as I can, but the instant my daughter goes out, she is bombarded with vibrantly wrapped snacks and sweetened beverages. She persistently desires cookies, chocolates and bottled fruit beverages – products intensively promoted to children. A single pizza commercial on TV is sufficient 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 looks forward to. She gets a packet of six cookies from a friend on the school bus and chocolates on birthdays, and confronts a french fry stand right outside her school gate.

At times it feels like the whole nutritional ecosystem is undermining parents who are just striving to raise healthy children.

As someone working in the a national health coalition and leading a project called Promoting Healthy Foods in Schools, I grasp this issue profoundly. Yet even with my professional background, keeping my eight-year-old daughter healthy is extremely challenging.

These constant encounters at school, in transit and online make it next to unattainable for parents to limit ultra-processed foods. It is not only about children’s choices; it is about a food system that encourages and advocates for unhealthy eating.

And the figures mirrors precisely what households such as my own are experiencing. A demographic health study found that a significant majority of children between six and 23 months ate unhealthy foods, and a substantial portion were already drinking sugary drinks.

These statistics echo what I see every day. Research conducted in the area where I live reported that 18.6% of schoolchildren were carrying excess weight and more than seven percent were clinically overweight, figures strongly correlated with the rise in processed food intake and increasingly inactive lifestyles. Additional analysis showed that many kids in Nepal eat sugary treats or manufactured savory snacks on a regular basis, and this regular consumption is associated with high levels of tooth decay.

The country urgently needs stronger policies, healthier school environments and stricter marketing regulations. Before that happens, families will continue fighting a daily battle against unhealthy snacks – one biscuit packet at a time.

Caribbean Challenges: When Fast Food Becomes the Default

My position is a bit unique as I was compelled to move from an island in our archipelago that was ravaged by a severe cyclone last year. But it is also part of the harsh truth that is affecting parents in a region that is feeling the most severe impacts of global warming.

“Conditions definitely worsens if a cyclone or mountain explosion eliminates most of your crops.”

Before the occurrence of the storm, as a food nutrition and health teacher, I was extremely troubled about the rising expansion of fast food restaurants. Currently, even local corner stores are involved in the change of a country once known for a diet of nutritious home-produced fruits and vegetables, to one where oily, salted, sweetened fast food, loaded with artificial ingredients, is the preference.

But the situation definitely intensifies if a hurricane or volcanic eruption decimates most of your crops. Fresh, healthy food becomes rare and very expensive, so it is incredibly challenging to get your kids to eat right.

Despite having a steady job I wince at food prices now and have often resorted to selecting from items such as peas and beans and meat and eggs when feeding my four children. Offering reduced portions or smaller servings have also become part of the post-crisis adaptation techniques.

Also it is quite convenient when you are balancing a challenging career with parenting, and rushing around in the morning, to just give the children a small amount of cash to buy snacks at school. Unfortunately, most campus food stalls only offer highly packaged treats and sweet fizzy drinks. The outcome of these challenges, I fear, is an increase in the already alarming levels of chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

The Allure of Fast Food in Uganda

The logo of a major fried chicken chain looms large at the entrance of a shopping center in a Kampala neighbourhood, daring you to pass by without stopping at the takeaway window.

Many of the children and parents visiting the mall have never gone beyond the borders of this East African nation. They certainly don’t know about the historical economic crisis that motivated the founder to start one of the first global eatery brands. All they know is that the famous acronym represent all things desirable.

Throughout commercial complexes and each trading place, there is quick-service cuisine for any income level. 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 incentive when they get a positive academic results. In fact, they are hoping their parents take them there for Christmas.

“Mother, do you know that some people pack fried chicken 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 regional restaurant brand selling everything from fried breakfasts to burgers.

It is the end of the week, and I am only {half-listening|