Mexico is going all out all at once in its war on childhood obesity and diabetes. New Mexican national guidelines against junk food in schools mandated last fall took effect this week. School admins who don’t shape up face massive fines…
As many as 77 percent of Mexican schools have street vendors’
junk food carts like this one on the sidewalks just outside…
Desperate times call for desperate measures, the old saying goes… And Mexican federal officials have taken what some school administrators call draconian measures to fight a national childhood obesity and type-2 diabetes emergency.
Survey says…
A UN Children’s Agency survey of 10,000 Mexican schools in 2023-24 confirmed that, “junk food was available in 98 percent of them, with sugary drinks in 95 percent and soft drinks in 79 percent. Ads for junk food were found in 25 percent of schools,” according to an AP report first published last October.
Mexico’s children have the unenviable distinction of consuming the most junk food of all countries in Latin America. And many get 40 percent of their total caloric intake from it, according to the U.N. Children’s Agency, which has declared child obesity there an emergency.
As a result, Mexican lawmakers banned junk food from all schools in the country. The schools had 6 months to adapt or face massive fines. All schools were required to conform to the new rules by the first of this month.
Outside vendors a problem
One issue that’s proving hard to resolve is enforcing the rules on third-party street vendors who set up daily on the sidewalks surrounding 77 percent of schools. The sidewalks are technically ‘off school property’.
That, the lawmakers say, may constitute a separate issue that will have to be addressed in a separate bill. Or, as in other jurisdictions, may fall to local or regional governments to tackle.
Clean water a focus
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that, under the junk ban, schools will have to offer water fountains and alternative snacks, like bean tacos.
“It is much better to eat a bean taco [see photo, top of page] than a bag of potato chips,” Sheinbaum told reporters. “It is much better to drink [popular] hibiscus flower water than [fizzy] soda.”
My take
How serious are the politicians? Those fines we mentioned earlier could run anywhere from (US)$$545 and $5,450, and could as much as double for a second offense. That would be just under (US)$11,000 – or close to the average annual wage for many Mexican teachers and school administrators.
The ban is a bold move, and one the politicians know is unpopular, not only with the school admins and the country’s legions of junk food vendors, but with he kids, as well. Parents, however, have come out largely in favour of the ban.
Previous attempts to tackle the problem proved unsuccessful, not the in least due to widespread opposition. But when you consider that more than one in three Mexican school kids are already overweight or obese, it’s more than worth another try…
~ Maggie J.