Eric Umansky called my attention to this article about obesity in Brazil. I've been down this road before and I don't want to belabor the issue, but I'm glad that they mention this:
Leonor Pacheco, a consultant to the Ministry of Social Development and Anti-Hunger, said obesity in Brazil was particularly prevalent among poor women in urban areas. She blamed that on not enough exercise, too much time spent watching television and using the little money they have to buy packaged food and soft drinks.
"The diets of poor people are unbalanced," Pacheco said. "They use a lot of cooking oil, and they eat a lot of fried foods and sugar. We have children suffering from hunger and adults suffering from obesity. We have the worst of both worlds."
One of the cheapest lunches you can get in Brazil is a couple of pasteis (a type of fried filled usually with beef or cheese) and a soda or juice. Foods like this are cheap and filling, and if one is poor I can only imagine that ridding yourself of hunger pangs is a daily struggle.
One important point the article does not mention, however, is that Brazilians (at least in my experience), do not seem to care for whole grains. Brown rice (arroz integral in Portuguese) and whole wheat bread (pão integral) are usually found only in specialty restaurants and are not very popular. Given the staple in the diet that rice and beans are, developing a taste for brown rice could at least reduce the rate of diabetes. One positive thing I like in Brazil is that the midday meal is usually the main meal (again, in my experience).
There's another culprit here as well:
In a sign of the times in Brazil, the number of McDonald's restaurants - the whipping boy of the anti-fat crowd - has risen from 100 in 1992 to more than 1,200 today, although the Golden Arches here have begun serving salads, yogurt and other healthy food.
It's not just McDonald's. It's a matter of convenience and speed. Unfortunately, Brazil is becoming so much like the rest of the world in this regard. Perhaps someone should consider establishing a branch of the Slow Food movement in Brazil.
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