Tasty But High in Fat, Cheap Junk Food Expands Waistlines in Emerging Economies Chris Arsenault - Thomson Reuters Foundation
go to original June 14, 2015

Obesity is the scourge of overfed high income countries, right? THINK AGAIN! We weigh up the escalating global epidemic of obesity. In countries where hunger was once the killer, hundreds of millions of people could now be eating themselves to death. (Journeyman Pictures)

Eating healthy is becoming an expensive luxury in emerging market countries, where vegetable prices have spiked while high fat, sugary junk foods have become cheaper, economists say.

Prices of fruit and vegetables rose by 91 percent from 1990 to 2012, while the costs of ultra-processed ready-to-eat meals dropped by up to 20 percent in Brazil, China, South Korea and Mexico, researchers wrote in the first study of its kind on emerging economies.

The price shifts are contributing to rising obesity in the developing world, mirroring the expanding waistlines in wealthy countries, said the 64-page study "The Rising Cost of a Healthy Diet" from the Overseas Development Institute, a U.K.-based think tank.

Read the rest at Daily Mail

Related: Nine of the World's Ten Most Obese Countries Are in the Pacific (EFE)

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