It turns out that Americans are not the only ones broadening their horizons:
Sizing up the magnitude of Mexico’s obesity problem is as simple as visiting a clothing manufacturer. At Arush, a clothing factory in Mexico City, the changing demand has modified production. Buyers, including Mexican giant retailers like Soriana and Liverpool, are increasingly asking for “large” and “extra large” sizes, which have all but replaced production of “small” and “medium.”
Designer Adriana Moreno, who works at Arush, said they’re simply adapting to Mexico’s new reality: an explosion of overweight and obese people, mostly in the last three decades. “In our market, I can tell you we’ve had a 50% growth in sales of large and extra-large sizes in the last three years,” Moreno said.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 69.5% of the Mexican population aged 15 and older is overweight or obese. This is the highest rate in the world, even higher than in the United States — which historically had the highest rate — and the United Kingdom, which has the highest in Europe.
The Mexican government launched a campaign last year urging people to exercise, drink more water, and eat fruits and vegetables. President Felipe Calderón said that “since 1980, the percentage of overweight or obese Mexicans has tripled.”
The problem starts early: 4.5 million children between the ages of 5 and 11 are already overweight. Many school districts have banned junk food in their facilities, but it’s readily available right outside, much to the chagrin of parents. “You can see how many stands there are outside. And they’re all selling junk food! I think they should also control what they sell out here,” Daniela Piña said as she waited for her child outside a grammar school in Mexico City’s Doctores neighborhood.
Fast food has been an American export to many countries both as a general principle and in corporate terms.
In the late 70s, one of my articles written from Spain as the Madrid-based Special Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor was about Burger King moving into Madrid in a big way — complete with broadcast advertisements. The big difference: Madrid’s Burger Kings also served wine.
And in the 1980s, as a staff reporter for The San Diego Union, one of my beats was Tijuana. I did a story about a popular pizzeria in Tijuana. It was locally owned. But now there are big international corporate pizzas for sale in TJ as well.
Mexican parents should sit down and discuss this serious problem with their kids over some hot dogs and fries.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.