Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings April 2014, Volume 27, Number 2 | Page 97

cans of sugary drinks may have contributed to the reduction
in calories.
LATIN AMERICA’S FIGHT AGAINST JUNK FOOD
Since 2012, Peru, Uruguay, and Costa Rica have banned
junk food from public schools (9). Ecuador recently mandated
a nutritional label system that warns against high salt, sugar,
and fat. Industrial food makers in Ecuador also will be banned
from using images of animal characters, cartoon personalities,
or celebrities to promote products high in salt, sugar, or fat. In
2013, Mexico passed a special tax of 8% on packaged foods like
potato chips, and a per liter tax (about 8 US cents) on sugary
beverages. (Mexico is Coca-Cola Company’s second-biggest
market in the world by volume sales.) Columbia is also considering a beverage tax. In contrast, in more developed countries,
proposed soda taxes have failed.
Obesity has become a major problem in Latin America, and
the trend coincides with Latin America’s becoming an important
growth region for multinational food and beverage corporations.
(PepsiCo Inc.’s Latin American food volume sales soared 11%
while contracting 1% in North America.) Mexicans presently
allot 45% of their household food expenditures to packaged
foods. Chileans are on par with Americans, spending 63% of
their food budget on packaged products. In both Chile and
Mexico, roughly 7 of 10 adults and nearly a third of children
are overweight, and diabetes mellitus threatens to overwhelm
the country’s health system. Serious health problems correlate
with high consumption of snacks, soda, and other industrialized
foods. Good for Latin America!
SMOKING DECREASE
The war on smoking, now 5 decades old, is one of the nation’s greatest public health success stories (10). In 1964, four in
10 adults in the US smoked; today, fewer than 2 in 10 smoke.
In 1964, the number of cigarettes smoked in the US annually
by adults was 4,195 and by 2011, the number had dropped by
70%. The first surgeon general’s report on smoking and health
appeared on January 11, 1964. Its statement that smoking is
a cause of lung cancer and other disease was major news then.
The report led to cigarette warning labels, a ban on TV ads, and
eventually an antismoking movement that shifted the nation’s
attitude on smoking. Then, smokers were cool; today, many are
outcasts (banished from restaurants, bars, public buildings, and
their workplaces). The formula for success is no longer unclear:
adopt tough warning labels, air public health ads, fund smoking
cessation programs, impose smoke-free laws, and raise taxes on
cigarettes. Few people start smoking aft W"vR