How globalization – and FDI – changed the way the world eats (and made us less healthy) (Investment Monitor)

Investment Monitor published an article stating that diets high in calories and low in nutrition are now prevalent in the world. The article says that shifts in dietary patterns as a result of globalized food markets, as happened in Mexico, are putting some countries in an impossible situation.  Rob Vos, director of the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division explains that developing countries are now experiencing the “double burden of malnutrition.”  This double burden takes place when countries experience not only stunting and wasting among their young population, but also an increase in those who are overweight and obese. In his report, The processed food revolution in African food systems and the double burden of malnutrition, Vos writes, “This shift has been more obvious in urban areas and among higher-income households but is emerging in rural areas and among the poor. A key driver of obesity very likely is increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods, while an array of economic, social and environmental factors impacts stunting.”