Reuters / Henry Romero
For a coronavirus pandemic that is affecting people with underlying health conditions such as obesity, Mexican governments are taking extreme measures to stop the virus by banning the sale of junk food to minors. This week, state lawmakers in the southern state of Tabasco voted to ban the sale of sodas, sugary drinks, and other highly processed foods, such as chips and candy, to anyone under 18 years of age. The vote comes on the heels of a similar measure in nearby Oaxaca, which the country has the highest percentage of childhood obesity, and is among a dozen Mexican states – representing about a third of the country – working on legislation to restrict the sale of junk food to minors.
The problem of obesity and the junk food it helps burn is not new to the country: Mexicans drink more sugary drinks per capita than any other country in the world, and a recent study in the state of Guerrero said that 70 percent of school children report that soda for breakfast. A January 2020 report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development found that 73 percent of Mexicans are overweight. The findings are linked, which over the years has prompted a host of measures to reduce consumption, including a sugar tax in 2014 and a new junk food labeling law coming into effect in October, which will increase junk food packaging treated as cigarettes.
Mexico has been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus, with more than 500,000 confirmed cases and 57,000 deaths, the third-highest number of virus-linked deaths in the world. “With his ley antichatarra, of anti-junk food law“The southern state of Oaxaca, in a vote of 31 to 1, bans the sale of items such as chips, candy, soda and other sugary drinks to children under 18, and puts these foods in the same category as cigarettes and alcohol,” reports of the Washington Post. “The law imposes fines, closure of shops and imprisonment for repeat offenders. The ban also applies to vending machines in schools. The coronavirus of Mexico’s deputy public health minister, Hugo López-Gatell, applauded the move to curb junk food sales, calling soft drinks “bottles of poison.”
