Oaxaca Bans Sale of Junk Food, Soda to Children
The Mexican state of Oaxaca has banned selling junk food and sugary drinks to children. Lawmakers hope that the ban will curb the country’s obesity problem. (1)
Oaxaca lawmakers passed a bill that will make it illegal to sell junk food or sugar-filled drinks to children. The bill puts them in the same category as cigarettes and alcohol.
“It’s important to finally put the brakes on this industry, which has already sickened our country and our children,” said Magaly López Domínguez, the Oaxaca lawmaker who introduced the bill. López Domínguez pointed out that products from the drink industry are available in even the inaccessible parts of the state, “where there’s often not even medicines, but there’s Coca-Cola,” she told The Guardian. (1)
Health Issues in Mexico
In Mexico, 73% of the population is overweight. And diabetes and other related diseases are common. Type 2 diabetes kills 70,000 Mexicans each year. (1, 2)
Mexicans drink more soda than any other country in the world with the average citizen drinking 163 liters annually. This is 40% more than the average in the United States. (1, 2)
The problem starts young. In one region of Guerrero, 70% of schoolchildren said they drank soda at breakfast. Mexico has the highest rate of childhood obesity in the world (1, 2)
“About 10% of kids are being fed soda from zero to six months of age,” Dr. Salvador Villalpando told the BBC. Villalpando is a childhood obesity specialist at the Federico Gomez children’s hospital in Mexico City. “By the time they reach two, it’s about 80%.” (2)
Some, like Alejandro Calvillo, the director of El Poder del Consumidor, connect Mexico’s soda issue to a lack of clean water. “When you go to these communities, what you find is junk food. There’s no access to clean drinking water,” Calvillo said in an interview with The Guardian. (1)
But Villalpando believes that it’s a cultural issue. “Mexican moms like having chubby kids in their homes as it shows they’re feeding them properly. And they are so used to feeding them sodas, they don’t stop even when there is clean water.” (2)
Opinions aside, consuming large amounts of sugary drinks and junk food from a young age is having a real impact on Mexico’s children. Junk food doesn’t provide children with the nutrients they need to develop physically and mentally. And Villapando reports that many of the children he sees in his clinic exhibit early signs of diabetes. (2)
Tax on Junk Food and Sugary Drinks
In 2014, Mexico established a 10% tax on sugary drinks and an 8% tax on high-calorie food. Soda consumption dropped by 7.5%. But the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged lawmakers to take more drastic measures, especially because those most vulnerable to the virus have comorbidities like diabetes, obesity, and hypertension – all of which Mexico’s population struggles with. (1, 2)
“This health emergency makes it even more evident the damage caused by the consumption of these sugary drinks,” López Domínguez said. “Its approval was timely.” (1)
Critics of the bill, such as representatives of Mexico’s drink industry, have accused López Domínguez of scapegoating soda and junk food for Mexico’s 40,000 COVID-19 deaths rather than taking a hard line on masks, testing, or contact tracing. (1)
Whether or not junk food and soda are contributing to Mexico’s COVID-19 deaths, they’re certainly causing serious health issues for its citizens. Curbing their consumption in childhood will hopefully have a positive impact longterm on Mexico’s health. (1)
