World Obesity Day, celebrated on March 4, draws attention to the growing prevalence of childhood obesity, a global public health problem that also significantly affects Brazil.
In 2021, the Primary Health Care of the Unified Health System (SUS) diagnosed that 356,000 children aged 5 to 10 were obese in the country, revealing the urgent need for effective strategies to prevent and combat obesity.
From the first years of life, children are consuming little variety of healthy foods, such as fresh or minimally processed foods, and are being exposed very early on to ultra-processed foods that can damage their health, warns the Food Guide for Brazilian Children Under 2, a publication by the Ministry of Health.
The Atlas of Childhood Obesity in Brazil (2019) points out that 48% of children aged 6 to 23 months consume ultra-processed foods, 32% drink sweetened beverages and 28% eat cookies and sweets.
These eating habits are important factors in the increase in overweight children, a condition that can lead to chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and respiratory problems.
A figure highlighted in the World Obesity Day Webinar: Acceleration Plan to End Obesity, promoted by the Pan American Health Organization, shows that, in the Americas, 6% of children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 19 are overweight or obese. And it reveals that by 2035, 400 million children will be obese, which corresponds to one in five children.
Centre of Excellence
The Nurture the Future Project, a partnership between the WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger in Brazil and the Ministry of Health of Brazil and the Ministries of Health of Colombia and Peru, is a joint initiative to tackle childhood obesity and malnutrition.
In its first phase, the project offered practical solutions to improve the eating habits and health of children in vulnerable communities by strengthening public nutrition and health policies through the promotion of nutrition education and the prevention of obesity.
The Policy Brief Tackling the Multiple Burden of Malnutrition, the result of the Nurture the Future Project, is one of the main tools for tackling this problem. The document reveals that malnutrition has several components, such as eating habits, food insecurity, genetic factors, and access to education and health.
For the nutritionist and project officer Eliene Sousa, the big challenge is the effective implementation of existing policies, and the second phase of the project will focus on training local managers so that they can apply the recommendations in the context of each community.
The fight against obesity and malnutrition requires intersectoral actions and strategies on multiple fronts. As Eliene Sousa says, collaboration between different areas, such as health, education and social assistance, is the key to success in tackling obesity in Brazil.