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The menace of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is a worldwide phenomenon. While their consumption is especially elevated in the west, making up the majority of the average diet in the UK and the US, for example, UPFs are replacing natural ingredients in diets on each part of the world.

This month, the world’s largest review on the dangers to well-being of UPFs was released. It alerted that such foods are subjecting millions of people to persistent health issues, and called for swift intervention. Earlier this year, a major children's agency revealed that an increased count of kids around the world were overweight than malnourished for the initial instance, as unhealthy snacks floods diets, with the most dramatic increases in developing nations.

A leading public health expert, a scholar in the field of nourishment science at the a major educational institution in Brazil, and one of the review's authors, says that businesses motivated by financial gain, not personal decisions, are fueling the change in habits.

For parents, it can seem as if the whole nutritional landscape is opposing them. “At times it feels like we have zero control over what we are placing onto our kid’s plate,” says one mother from South Asia. We conversed with her and four other parents from internationally on the increasing difficulties and annoyances of providing a nutritious food regimen in the age of UPFs.

Nepal: ‘She Craves Cookies, Chocolate and Juice’

Bringing up a child in the Himalayan nation today often feels like fighting a losing battle, especially when it comes to food. I prepare meals at home as much as I can, but the moment my daughter steps outside, she is bombarded with brightly packaged snacks and sweetened beverages. She constantly craves cookies, chocolates and packaged fruit juices – products intensively promoted to children. Just one pizza commercial on TV is sufficient for her to ask, “Can we have pizza today?”

Even the educational setting encourages unhealthy habits. Her cafeteria serves sugary juice 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 faces a snack bar right outside her school gate.

On certain occasions it feels like the complete dietary landscape is working against parents who are just striving to raise healthy children.

As someone associated with the a national health coalition and heading a project called Advocating for Better School Diets, I grasp this issue thoroughly. Yet even with my expertise, keeping my eight-year-old daughter healthy is exceptionally hard.

These repeated exposures at school, in transit and online make it almost unfeasible for parents to limit ultra-processed foods. It is not simply about what kids pick; it is about a nutritional framework that encourages and fosters unhealthy eating.

And the figures reflects exactly what parents in my situation are going through. A comprehensive population report found that 69% of children between six and 23 months ate poor dietary items, and a substantial portion 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 a notable percentage of schoolchildren were carrying excess weight and 7.1% were suffering from obesity, figures closely associated with the surge in processed food intake and less active lifestyles. Another study showed that many kids in Nepal eat candy or manufactured savory snacks almost daily, and this habitual eating is tied to high levels of tooth decay.

Nepal urgently needs tighter rules, improved educational settings and more stringent promotion limits. Before that happens, families will continue engaging in an ongoing struggle against processed items – a single cookie pack at a time.

In St. Vincent: The Shift from Local Produce to Processed Meals

My circumstances is a bit particular as I was compelled to move from an island in our chain of islands that was destroyed by a major hurricane last year. But it is also part of the stark reality that is affecting parents in a part of the world that is experiencing the most severe impacts of climate change.

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

Even before the storm, as a food nutrition and health teacher, I was extremely troubled about the growing spread of quick-service eateries. Today, even community markets are complicit in the transformation of a country once known for a diet of healthy locally grown fruits and vegetables, to one where greasy, salty, sugary fast food, full of manufactured additives, is the choice.

But the scenario definitely intensifies if a natural disaster or volcanic eruption destroys most of your crops. Unprocessed ingredients becomes hard to find and prohibitively costly, so it is exceptionally hard to get your kids to eat right.

Regardless of having a steady job I wince at food prices now and have often turned to choosing between items such as vegetables and animal products when feeding my four children. Providing less food or diminished quantities have also become part of the post-disaster coping strategies.

Also it is rather simple when you are managing a challenging career with parenting, and scrambling in the morning, to just give the children a little money to buy snacks at school. Unfortunately, most school tuck shops only offer manufactured munchies and sugary sodas. The result of these hurdles, I fear, is an growth in the already epidemic rates of lifestyle diseases such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

Uganda: ‘It’s in Every Mall and Every Market’

The symbol of a major fried chicken chain looms large at the entrance of a mall in a city district, challenging you to pass by without stopping at the takeaway window.

Many of the kids and caregivers visiting the mall have never ventured outside the borders of the country. They certainly don’t know about the historical economic crisis that motivated the founder to start one of the first worldwide restaurant networks. All they know is that the brand name represent all things desirable.

In every mall and all local bazaars, there is quick-service cuisine for every pocket. As one of the costlier choices, the fried chicken chain is considered a special occasion. It is the place Kampala’s families go to mark birthdays and baptisms. It is the children’s prize when they get a favorable grades. In fact, they are hoping their parents take them there for the holidays.

“Mum, do you know that some people pack fast food 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 weekend, and I am only {half-listening|