by In many countries, buying food in supermarkets, convenience stores and online has become the norm. But what is the convenience of modern food shopping that does our health?
Our studies, published today with colleagues from UNICEF, has looked at how people in 97 countries for 15 years for shopping shopping.
Worldwide we found a huge increase in the number of supermarkets and convenience stores (which we shorten in this article into supermarkets). We have also discovered that people spend more money in these stores and on their online platforms.
But this is approved for our health. People in countries with the most supermarkets per person buy more unhealthy food and are more likely to be obese.
This is why we are so concerned about this disaster in public health.
The rise of chain messages
Our study analyzed data in the food industry from a business database to understand how the food sector has changed worldwide over time. We have looked at the types of stores, how many people spend there and how much unhealthy processed food is sold. We have linked these trends to changes in obesity rates using data from a large global initiative.
We have found that the density of chain messages (number of stores per 10,000 people) has increased worldwide by 23.6 percent for 15 years (from 2009 to 2023).
We found much more of these stores per person in countries with a high income, as you can expect. However, it is in low and middle income countries where figures increase the fastest.
Fast urbanization, rising income and customer demand mean that large retail companies see these countries as new potential markets.
For example, the density of chain stores rose by around 21 percent per year in Myanmar, around 18 percent per year in Vietnam and around 12 percent per year in Cambodia.
We also shop online
The data in our study also includes the rise of online shopping for food. For example, the worldwide expenditure on online shopping was 325 percent more in 2023 compared to 2014.
Of the 27 countries we have looked for online shopping in food, people in the United Arab Emirates and the United States were the best spending. In 2023, the average person in the United Arab Emirates spent around US $ 617 that year, 570 percent more than in 2014. In the US, the average person spent US $ 387 in 2023 in 2023. That is around 125 percent more than in 2014.
It seems that many of us have gone shopping online in the early days of the Covid -Pandemie, a habit that seems to have stayed.
More shops, more junk food, more obesity
The rise of supermarkets in the chain, including their online platforms, also changes what we eat.
In the 15 years of our studies there is an increase of 10.9 percent in the turnover of unhealthy food from those chain messages.
The increase was particularly fast in South Asia. In Pakistan, people in Pakistan have bought 5 percent more unhealthy edited food from chain stores every year. In India it is 4 percent more and 3 percent more in Bangladesh.
For more than 15 years, our study also showed that the percentage of people with obesity in all countries rose from 18.2 percent to 23.7 percent. It was the countries with the biggest increase in the supermarkets of chains where we saw the sharpest increase in obesity.
Laos is a good example. The number of chain messages per person in the country has increased by 15 percent every year since 2009, while the percentage of people with obesity has doubled from 2009 to 2023.
Obesity increases in almost all countries. In Australia, overweight and obesity have recently officially overtaken the tobacco as the greatest burden for our health.
Why do we think supermarkets are to blame?
Supermarkets and hypermarkets sell healthy food, such as fruit and vegetables. Yet there are good reasons to think that our store environment can be blamed for the increase in obesity.
Highly edited foods
Chain shops usually sell a huge series of highly processed packaged foods with a lot of sugar, fat and salt that can harm our health. A study of the available food and drinks in supermarkets from 12 countries showed that the majority has been classified as unhealthy. Given our findings of rapid increase in chain messages in countries with low and middle income, it was alarming in this study that the least healthy products were usually seen in supermarkets from countries such as India, China and Chile.
Tough promotion
Chain stores often promote aggressive unhealthy food. This includes price detecting; Advertising in circulars, on TV and social media; And by being placed in prominent displays at Kassa and the ends of aisles. Studies have shown that this is true in Belgium, Ireland and another 12 countries.
We see unhealthy food more often promoted (with discounts and more prominently displayed) than healthy options. For example, on average at least one third of the products that are prominently displayed on Australian supermarket websites are unhealthy.
More purchasing power
In comparison with small independent grocers, large supermarket stores worldwide have a much greater influence on decisions on product range and price. That is why they can control the supply chains, often in collaboration with national and multinational food manufacturers of ultra-processed, unhealthy packaged food.
What can we do about it?
There are many social, political, cultural and economic factors that contribute to the increase in obesity worldwide. Much of these relate to the price, availability and promotion of food in retail environments and the way in which the retail trade is structured.
That is why we think it’s time for governments and retailers to perform and make changes to where and how we shop for food.
Some countries are already starting to act. In the United Kingdom, for example, the government legislation now prevents the placement of unhealthy food in prominent places such as the cash register and at the ends of aisles close to the cash register. From October this year, further restrictions on the price promotion of unhealthy food (such as “buy one, get one for free”) will also be near the VK near the VK.
There is also plenty that retailers can do. In Norway, for example, a large supermarket chain launched an extensive campaign for healthy eating chain a few years ago, also by increasing the size and prominent of healthy food displays and offering discounts on fruit and vegetables. This led to an increase of 42 percent in the sale of vegetables and an increase in fruit sales by 25 percent from 2012 to 2020.
But most supermarkets still do not do enough to prioritize the health and nutrition of their customers. In the US we see this in particular for supermarkets that focus on low -income people. And in the UK, although some promising progress has been made by some supermarket retailers, all those have assessed considerable room for improvement.
Now it is more than ever time to create healthier food environments that support nutritious diets and help the rising obesity to turn around.
Tailane Scapin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Deakin University and Adrian Cameron, professor of Public Health, Deakin University
This article is re -published from the conversation under a license for Creative Commons. Read the original article.
