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This plague of highly processed food items is an international crisis. While their intake is notably greater in developed countries, making up the majority of the average diet in places such as the United Kingdom and United States, for example, UPFs are displacing whole foods in diets on every continent.

This month, the world’s largest review on the health threats of UPFs was issued. It warned that such foods are subjecting millions of people to persistent health issues, and called for immediate measures. Earlier this year, an international child welfare organization revealed that a greater number of youngsters around the world were obese than too thin for the historic moment, as processed edibles floods diets, with the sharpest climbs in developing nations.

A leading public health expert, professor of public health nutrition at the a prominent Brazilian university, and one of the review's authors, says that businesses motivated by financial gain, not consumer preferences, are fueling the shift in eating patterns.

For parents, it can appear that the entire food system is undermining them. “At times it feels like we have no authority over what we are serving on our kid’s plate,” says one mother from the Indian subcontinent. We interviewed her and four other parents from across the globe on the increasing difficulties and irritations of providing a balanced nourishment in the era of ultra-processing.

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

Raising a child in the Himalayan nation 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 moment my daughter steps outside, she is surrounded by vibrantly wrapped snacks and sugary drinks. She constantly craves cookies, chocolates and bottled fruit beverages – products intensively promoted to children. A single pizza commercial on TV is all it takes for her to ask, “Is it possible to eat pizza today?”

Even the school environment encourages unhealthy habits. Her cafeteria serves sugary juice every Tuesday, which she anxiously anticipates. She is given a six-piece biscuit pack from a friend on the school bus and chocolates on birthdays, and confronts a snack bar right outside her school gate.

On certain occasions it feels like the entire food environment is working against parents who are simply trying to raise fit youngsters.

As someone employed by the Nepal Non-Communicable Disease Alliance and spearheading a project called Encouraging Nutritious Meals in Education, I grasp this issue profoundly. Yet even with my professional background, keeping my school-age girl healthy is exceptionally hard.

These constant encounters at school, in transit and online make it almost unfeasible for parents to limit ultra-processed foods. It is not simply about children’s choices; it is about a nutritional framework that normalises and promotes unhealthy eating.

And the statistics reflects exactly what parents in my situation are facing. A comprehensive population report found that 69% of children between six and 23 months ate junk food, and 43% were already drinking sweetened beverages.

These numbers resonate with what I see every day. An analysis conducted in the district where I live reported that 18.6% of schoolchildren were carrying excess weight and a smaller yet concerning fraction were clinically overweight, figures strongly correlated with the increase in unhealthy snacking and less active lifestyles. Further research showed that many kids in Nepal eat sweet snacks or manufactured savory snacks almost daily, and this frequent intake is tied to high levels of tooth decay.

Nepal urgently needs stronger policies, improved educational settings and tougher advertising controls. Before that happens, families will continue engaging in an ongoing struggle against processed items – a single cookie pack at a time.

St Vincent and the Grenadines: ‘Greasy, Salty, Sugary Fast Food is the Preference’

My situation is a bit different as I was forced to relocate from an island in our chain of islands that was devastated by a powerful storm last year. But it is also part of the harsh truth that is confronting parents in a region that is experiencing the gravest consequences of climate change.

“The situation definitely worsens if a cyclone or mountain explosion wipes out most of your vegetation.”

Before the occurrence of the storm, as a nutrition instructor, I was deeply concerned about the growing spread of fast food restaurants. Nowadays, even community markets are complicit in the transformation of a country once defined by a diet of fresh regional fruits and vegetables, to one where oily, salted, sweetened fast food, full of artificial ingredients, is the preference.

But the situation definitely intensifies if a hurricane or geological event wipes out most of your vegetation. Nutritious whole foods becomes scarce and very expensive, so it is exceptionally hard to get your kids to eat right.

Despite having a steady job I am shocked by food prices now and have often turned to selecting from items such as peas and beans and protein sources when feeding my four children. Offering reduced portions or diminished quantities have also become part of the post-crisis adaptation techniques.

Also it is rather simple when you are managing a stressful occupation with parenting, and hurrying about in the morning, to just give the children a little money to buy snacks at school. Sadly, most campus food stalls only offer ultra-processed snacks and sweet fizzy drinks. The outcome of these hurdles, I fear, is an rise in the already widespread prevalence of lifestyle diseases such as blood sugar disorders and high blood pressure.

Kampala's Landscape: A Fast-Food Dominated Environment

The logo of a major fried chicken chain stands prominently at the entrance of a shopping center in a urban area, daring you to pass by without stopping at the quick service lane.

Many of the children and parents visiting the mall have never gone beyond the borders of the country. They certainly don’t know about the bygone era of hardship that inspired the founder to start one of the first worldwide restaurant networks. All they know is that the famous acronym represent all things modern.

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 observe 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.

“Mom, do you know that some people pack fast food for school lunch,” my teenage girl, 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 local quick-service outlet selling everything from cooked morning dishes to burgers.

It is Friday evening, and I am only {half-listening|