<story><title>Western fast food companies are aggressively expanding in Brazil</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/16/health/brazil-obesity-nestle.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>shihching</author><text>&amp;gt; At one meeting, a representative from the food industry accused Anvisa of trying to subvert parental authority, saying mothers had the right to decide what to feed their children, recalled Vanessa Schottz, a nutrition advocate.&lt;p&gt;The same argument is used in the US to thwart limitations on sugary beverage purchases and other junk food with SNAP -- these compose 10-20% of purchases, 50% of which goes to Wal-Mart,  alongside 2-5x greater premature mortality from cardiac arrest and diabetic related complications.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ajph.aphapublications.org&amp;#x2F;doi&amp;#x2F;abs&amp;#x2F;10.2105&amp;#x2F;AJPH.2016.303608&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ajph.aphapublications.org&amp;#x2F;doi&amp;#x2F;abs&amp;#x2F;10.2105&amp;#x2F;AJPH.2016.3...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Incentivizing the poor to hock Nestle timed according to Brazilian food assistance checks is clever. Reminds me of Herbalife, and Betting on Zero -- Hispanic populations, eager to succeed in entrepreneurship, here too are victims of pyramid schemes preying on ill health.</text></comment>
<story><title>Western fast food companies are aggressively expanding in Brazil</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/16/health/brazil-obesity-nestle.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>crazygringo</author><text>As an American who lived in Brazil for 8 years, honestly I&amp;#x27;m not sure this is any worse than traditional food.&lt;p&gt;A typical Brazilian lunch is a piece of meat with beans, sides of rice, french fries, and fried flour (farofa) -- that&amp;#x27;s right, 3 carbs of empty calories (2 fried) and no real vegetables -- all washed down with mostly-added-sugar &amp;quot;fruit juice concentrate&amp;quot; (cashew apple is really common). Bar snacks are 100% deep-fried, or &amp;quot;pizza&amp;quot; with copious amounts of sugary ketchup (don&amp;#x27;t ask). Desserts are the sweetest things your tongue has ever touched -- brigadeiros, pudim, essentially all just super-sweet condensed milk.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not like the traditional Brazilian diet is full of fresh veggies or nutritional variety at all. I mean, I thought us Americans loved our french fries... but the Brazilians have got us beat!</text></comment>