Globalization of food systems in developing countries: impact on food security and nutrition

Street foods and supermarkets are becoming increasingly important, but nutritionists are growing progressively concerned. This compilation of articles examines the impact of globalisation and urbanisation on dietary patterns and nutritional status of urban populations in developing countries.<br /><br />The authors illustrate that the positive dimensions of urbanisation on diet and health include greater access to education and health care services, and greater availability of diverse foods. However, there are also negative features, including diets with greater amounts of fat and sugars, increasingly sedentary lifestyles, and environmental pollution.<br /><br />With this in mind, the changing food systems brought about by the forces of globalisation have led to new challenges and opportunities:<br /> there is alarm that local culture and food traditions are disappearing, where multinational and transnational corporations are increasingly controlling national food in addition, for most countries, micronutrient deficiencies are of concern as a result, many countries in the developing world are faced with the continuing burden of undernutrition and food insecurity at the same time, changes in diet and physical activity patterns are increasing the incidence of diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), principally obesity, coronary heart disease, diabetes and hypertension <br />The paper underlines that in a national context, the key nutrition strategies to be pursued should be developed based on a thorough assessment of the most pressing national nutritional concerns. Furthermore, it concludes the following:<br /> coordination between agriculture, education, health and nutrition is essential to provide favourable environments and appropriate messages for maintaining or recreating healthy food cultures one of the most obvious unions between these sectors is via the promotion of fresh fruit and vegetables consumption in this sense, schools and child care facilities are an ideal place to practice such promotion, while street food vendors can easily and usefully be involved in projects to promote traditional fruit and vegetables