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T scourge of highly processed food items is a worldwide phenomenon. Although their use is especially elevated in developed countries, forming more than half the average diet in the UK and the US, for example, UPFs are replacing fresh food in diets on every continent.

In the latest development, the world’s largest review on the risks to physical condition of UPFs was published. It warned that such foods are exposing millions of people to chronic damage, and called for swift intervention. Earlier this year, a major children's agency revealed that more children around the world were overweight than underweight for the historic moment, as junk food dominates diets, with the steepest rises in low- and middle-income countries.

Carlos Monteiro, professor of public health nutrition at the University of São Paulo, and one of the study's contributors, says that businesses motivated by financial gain, not individual choices, are propelling the change in habits.

For parents, it can appear that the entire food system is opposing them. “On occasion it feels like we have no authority over what we are serving on our child's dish,” says one mother from India. We spoke to her and four other parents from around the world on the expanding hurdles and irritations of ensuring a healthy diet in the era of ultra-processing.

In Nepal: Battling a Child's Desire for Packaged Snacks

Bringing up a child in this South Asian country today often feels like trying to swim against the current, especially when it comes to food. I prepare meals at home as much as I can, but the second my daughter goes out, she is encircled by colorfully presented snacks and sweetened beverages. She continually yearns for cookies, chocolates and processed juice drinks – products intensively promoted to children. Just one pizza commercial on TV is sufficient for her to ask, “Is it possible to eat pizza today?”

Even the educational setting encourages unhealthy habits. Her cafeteria serves sugary juice every Tuesday, which she looks forward to. She receives a small package of biscuits from a friend on the school bus and chocolates on birthdays, and confronts a chip shop right outside her school gate.

On certain occasions it feels like the complete dietary landscape is working against parents who are simply trying to raise healthy children.

As someone employed by the Nepal Non-Communicable Disease Alliance and leading a project called Encouraging Nutritious Meals in Education, I grasp this issue thoroughly. Yet even with my expertise, keeping my eight-year-old daughter healthy is extremely challenging.

These ongoing experiences at school, in transit and online make it nearly impossible for parents to limit ultra-processed foods. It is not only about the selections of the young; it is about a food system that makes standard and promotes unhealthy eating.

And the figures mirrors precisely what parents in my situation are facing. A recent national survey found that a significant majority of children between six and 23 months ate unhealthy foods, and 43% were already drinking sweetened beverages.

These statistics are reflected in what I see every day. An analysis conducted in the area where I live reported that 18.6% of schoolchildren were carrying excess weight and more than seven percent were suffering from obesity, figures directly linked with the rise in unhealthy snacking and more sedentary lifestyles. Further research showed that many kids in Nepal eat candy or manufactured savory snacks nearly every day, and this frequent intake is tied to high levels of tooth decay.

This nation urgently needs tighter rules, healthier school environments and stricter marketing regulations. In the meantime, families will continue engaging in an ongoing struggle against processed items – a single cookie pack at a time.

Caribbean Challenges: When Fast Food Becomes the Default

My circumstances is a bit particular as I was forced to relocate from an island in our group of isles that was destroyed by a major hurricane last year. But it is also part of the stark reality that is confronting parents in a part of the world that is enduring the gravest consequences of climate change.

“The situation definitely becomes more severe if a storm or mountain explosion wipes out most of your crops.”

Prior to the storm, as a dietary educator, I was extremely troubled about the increasing proliferation of fast food restaurants. Nowadays, even community markets are complicit in the shift of a country once known for a diet of healthy locally grown fruits and vegetables, to one where oily, salted, sweetened fast food, packed with synthetic components, is the choice.

But the situation definitely deteriorates if a hurricane or geological event destroys most of your vegetation. Nutritious whole foods becomes hard to find and very expensive, so it is exceptionally hard to get your kids to eat right.

Regardless of having a regular work I am shocked by food prices now and have often turned to selecting from items such as legumes and pulses and animal products when feeding my four children. Offering reduced portions or diminished quantities have also become part of the post-disaster coping strategies.

Also it is rather simple when you are managing a challenging career with parenting, and scrambling in the morning, to just give the children a couple of coins to buy snacks at school. Sadly, most school tuck shops only offer ultra-processed snacks and sweet fizzy drinks. The outcome of these challenges, I fear, is an increase in the already widespread prevalence of non-communicable illnesses such as blood sugar disorders and cardiovascular strain.

Uganda: ‘It’s in Every Mall and Every Market’

The logo of a major fried chicken chain stands prominently at the entrance of a mall in a city district, challenging you to pass by without stopping at the drive-through.

Many of the youngsters and guardians visiting the mall have never gone beyond the borders of Uganda. They certainly don’t know about the historical economic crisis that motivated the founder to start one of the first American international food chains. All they know is that the three letters represent all things sophisticated.

In every mall and all local bazaars, there is convenience meals for any income level. As one of the costlier choices, the fried chicken chain is considered a treat. It is the place local households go to observe birthdays and baptisms. It is the children’s prize when they get a favorable grades. In fact, they are hoping their parents take them there for festive celebrations.

“Mother, do you know that some people bring fried chicken for school lunch,” my teenage girl, who attends a school in the area, tells me. She says that on the days they do not pack that, they pack food from a popular east African fast-food chain selling everything from cooked morning dishes to burgers.

It is Friday evening, and I am only {half-listening|