Fast Food: An All-American Epidemic? Not Anymore

Coke is an all-American drink, isn’t it? Not anymore. As of 2006, fully 73% of Coke’s volume sales were done outside of North America. MacDonalds now has franchises in 121 countries. Even the former Soviet Union is home to 79 MacDonald's franchises today.

As the U.S., market for fast food shrinks or stagnates, many fast food companies are increasingly expanding their franchises in the developing world. In 2007, Coke’s Chief Operating Officer told CNN that in "Latin America, Europe, Asia, North Africa, it says everywhere 'Ice cold Coke served here.' Not in the U.S...You'll see our sense of urgency.”

The expansion in fast food (along with the decreasing commodity prices for things like palm oil and refined sugar) has fueled a growing epidemic of obesity, heart disease and diabetes in the developing world. The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 45% of North African/Middle Eastern women are overweight due to this “nutrition transition.”

Curiously enough, though, there are now a number of places — particularly urban areas — that now have a high prevalence of both overweight and underweight in the same households. But this might not be because of different food intake. More likely, it's the result of metabolic factors. That's because if someone grows up in abject poverty with insufficient caloric intake, his or her metabolism resets to a much slower level. When this same person moves to a city and gets access to nutrient-poor, energy-rich food, he or she will become obese. And yet children in that household might still be underweight and in particular lacking in protein, a condition called Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM), or Kwashiorkor.

So what can we do about this trend?

It’s certainly a hard one to buck, but education about nutrition and food security interventions can do a lot to prevent this boom/bust pattern of nutrition that promotes obesity. Promoting diabetes control through models like the Global Micro-Clinic Project is also an excellent idea. Furthermore, we can stop investing in these companies. Change.org has an action up that asks our U.S. health insurance companies to divest their fast food investments. It’s irresponsible for a health-related company to invest in a product that has so many known health risks. I urge you to take action here.

Photo credit: quinn.anya