The bright red bottle of Sting, an energy drink, catches Sunita Devi’s eye when she finds her local shopkeeper has run out of the biscuits she hoped to buy to fuel her son through his homework. She cannot read the English label, but 10-year-old Ajit says it sounds healthy.
“Stimulates mind, energises body” the bottle proclaims. It’s the type of marketing that helps shop owner Vasu Gupta sell energy drinks – mostly to families who have migrated from the countryside to a slum in Govindpuri in the Indian capital, Delhi.
But the drink, which is made by PepsiCo India, is not quite as beneficial as it sounds. A 250ml bottle contains 17g of sugar – a third of the daily intake recommended by the World Health Organization, although there is nothing on the packaging to warn about its high sugar levels; and the small print on the back says the drink is not recommended for children.
Drinks and snacks claiming to be good for consumers are concerning food campaigners working in India and elsewhere in the developing world, who say that food companies are getting away with marketing ultra-processed foods, high in sugar and salt, by promising health, height, strength, energy and even happiness.
The result, they say, is a crisis in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the form of rising diabetes and hypertension and poorly nourished children, which reaches even into the countryside – once considered to be unaffected by “western” diseases linked to sedentary urban life.
The link between unhealthy diets and ultra-processed food and drinks prompted the WHO to issue guidelines this month recommending that governments restrict marketing of foods high in fat, sugar and salt to children, because of the harmful impact on their health and nutrition.
Arun Gupta, head of the thinktank, Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest – India, says there is a “ticking timebomb” in the country, as NCDs increase and food corporations continue to misleadingly market processed foods.
“They sell happiness, they sell it as ‘this is the modern world’ … everybody wants their child to grow well, tall and free from disease. Those aspirations are actually used, emotionally exploited,” he says.
What do these foods contain?
Ultra-processed ingredients include fruit juice concentrates, maltodextrin, dextrose, golden syrup, hydrogenated oils, soya protein isolate, gluten, “mechanically separated meat”, organic dried egg whites, as well as rice and potato starch and corn fibre. Additives such as monosodium glutamate, colourings, thickeners and glazing agents are also ultra-processed.
Why does it matter?
Ultra-processed food contains higher levels of salt, sugar, fat and additives that are associated with obesity, cancer, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. They also tend to have lower levels of protein, zinc, magnesium, vitamins A, C, D, E, B12 and niacin necessary for a child’s optimal growth and development. It is also thought that other mechanisms are at play in UPFs being associated with worse health outcomes, including negative effects on the development of gut microbiota.
By Anna Bawden
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Quick Guide
What is ultra-processed food?
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Ultra-processed food involves extremely high levels of manufacturing to produce. It includes all formula milk, many commercially produced baby and toddler foods, fizzy drinks and sweets, fast food, snacks, biscuits and cakes, as well as mass-produced bread and breakfast cereals, ready meals and desserts.
What do these foods contain?
Ultra-processed ingredients include fruit juice concentrates, maltodextrin, dextrose, golden syrup, hydrogenated oils, soya protein isolate, gluten, “mechanically separated meat”, organic dried egg whites, as well as rice and potato starch and corn fibre. Additives such as monosodium glutamate, colourings, thickeners and glazing agents are also ultra-processed.
Why does it matter?
Ultra-processed food contains higher levels of salt, sugar, fat and additives that are associated with obesity, cancer, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. They also tend to have lower levels of protein, zinc, magnesium, vitamins A, C, D, E, B12 and niacin necessary for a child’s optimal growth and development. It is also thought that other mechanisms are at play in UPFs being associated with worse health outcomes, including negative effects on the development of gut microbiota.
By Anna Bawden
Gupta says he routinely finds foods marketed towards children that make significant health claims, but when analysed are high in sugar and highly processed, such as a whey protein product called Supermilk targeted at children as young as four.
The brand behind it, Gritzo, markets its product with adverts that suggest it can aid a child’s development into an athlete, as well as a video with an actor portraying a “smart mom” claiming that traditional food “is not necessarily good enough for today’s generation”, and promoting Supermilk.
However, when Gupta studied the ingredients, he discovered there were 50.8g of sugar per 100g – more than half the contents before milk is added. The product also recommends adding more sugar to taste. He points out that even the protein content could be harmful. “It’s possible that a kid’s regular, home-cook
