rio de janeiro: Chicken and potato, carrot and cabbage salad: It looks like a detox meal, but it’s on the menu at a school cafeteria in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which is looking for new ways to fight childhood obesity.
Nearly a third of Brazilian children are obese, and city health officials and community leaders are using innovative methods, including enlisting the help of school cafeterias and taking the message of healthy eating to the streets. I’m trying to deal with it.
“Cake? There’s no cake here,” laughs chef Neide Oliveira as he chops onions for 650 students at Burr Marx, a public school in the Kritica district west of Rio.
Snacks and cookies laden with additives are also on the market after city officials banned ultra-processed foods in schools this year.
Instead, students are discovering traditional Brazilian fruits and vegetables that are often overlooked these days, such as yams, okra, and persimmons. At first, many children mistakenly thought it was a tomato.
The program appears to be working, judging by the way students eat their lunches.
“I like everything we make here, and it’s good for my health. At home, I often eat junk food like pizza and hamburgers,” says 15-year-old Guilherme.
– ‘Infectious disease’ –
“Childhood obesity is an epidemic not only in Brazil but all over the world,” says Marluz Fortunato, a nutritionist with the Rio city government.
The city has implemented programs in public and private schools that require teachers to educate students about healthy eating habits.
Thirty-one percent of Brazilian children and teens are overweight or obese. A recent study by the Desiderata Institute found that more than 80 percent of 5- to 19-year-olds reported eating at least one ultra-processed food such as sausage, soda, or pastry in the previous day.
“Science shows that these products are extremely harmful to our health and are responsible for 70% of chronic diseases around the world,” pediatrician Daniel Becker told AFP told.
And in children, he says, it can lead to the dual problems of obesity and malnutrition, which can damage their ability to learn and concentrate.
～Temptation just outside～
However, changing your eating habits is difficult.
Ultra-processed foods are made with ingredients designed to “addict the taste buds,” Becker says, and have a market advantage over natural products given their mass distribution and lower prices.
Sitting next to Guilherme, his friend Lucas, 14, eats chicken, rice and beans. However, he admits that he regularly goes out to buy crisps after school.
Fortunato says schools need help from parents.
“It’s easy to educate young children. Once a person’s mindset is set, it’s difficult to introduce new concepts,” she says.
She gave the example of a father who complained to the school because his son started demanding more expensive natural juices than the ones with lots of sugar and additives at home.
– “Barbie Egg” –
Still, some adults manage to change.
When my grandmother Vera Lucía Pereira was 60 years old, she discovered organic vegetables and fell in love.
“Not only is it healthy, it’s delicious,” she says.
“My 7-year-old granddaughter is already eating better than previous generations,” she says with a smile.
Pereira is one of 160 women taking part in a project called Organic Favelas, which was launched 13 years ago to change the diets of poor communities in Babylonia.
In addition to holding workshops for residents, the project also takes creative approaches, such as graffitiing healthy recipes on neighborhood streets.
Founder Regina Cherry also works with schools. Her mission is to plate her children with her five colors of natural foods.
“We teach people how to make avocado butter,” she says, “Barbie eggs” dyed red with beets.
The 42-year-old entrepreneur is the author of a cookbook that last year won Brazil’s top literary award, Jabuti, in the creative economy category.
~”Sweet poison”~
At the national level, a high-profile advertising campaign launched in March aims to raise awareness of the health risks of ultra-processed foods, asking celebrities and experts to help spread the word.
The campaign, called “Sweet Poison” (“Doce Veneno” in Portuguese), calls for governments to tax ultra-processed foods and use the proceeds to subsidize healthy food.
“Change is difficult, but that doesn’t mean people have to become addicted to your ideas,” Pereira says.
“For our future, we have to open their minds to food.”
