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It is no secret that Mexico loves soft drinks. The Coca-Cola Company dominates 73 percent of the soft drink market, compared to a relatively minor 42 percent in the United States, and soft drink consumption has continually risen in the last 15 years. However, too much of anything can be bad, and in a country where soda's grasp extends to the rural population, diseases linked to the overconsumption of sugar are on the rise. In Mexico, an estimated seven out of ten children have a sugar-sweetened beverage along with their breakfast, according to El Poder del Consumidor, a Mexican civil society association founded to protect consumers' rights and advocate for reduced consumption of junk food and soft drinks.
In Mexico, sugar-sweetened beverages are the number one source of high calorie processed sugars, which are a primary contributor to the obesity epidemic. Mexico has one of the highest worldwide soft drink consumption rates, from 163 liters per capita in 2011 to 137 liters per capita in 2014. However, that has not been the only dietary shift Mexicans have experienced over the past decade; consumption of fruits and vegetables has been increasingly replaced by calorie-rich processed foods. These dietary changes are primarily due to cheaper food costs and aggressive marketing campaigns that target young demographics. Today, it is increasingly difficult financially for lower income Mexican families to eat healthy and to avoid adverse health consequences of overconsumption.
Today, one in every three adults in Mexico is overweight or obese due to a combination of reduced physical activity and diet changes. The Latin American country leads the world in deaths from obesity-related diseases with 405 mortalities per million adults, compared to the runner-up South Africa, which has an estimated 135 deaths per million. The increase in the overall obese population of Mexico also comes with increased rates of type two diabetes, as well as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and kidney troubles, all of which put significant strain on the healthcare system. If this trend is left unattended, projected healthcare expenditures for treating obesity related diseases could be as high as US$7.7 billion by 2017, according to Cecilia Garcia Schinkel, head of the International Life Sciences Institute Mexico. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the leading cause of death...