Body weight, a way of measuring the health of our species, is today an indicator of well-being, and perhaps even in our evolution as a society, it has been a way of comparing, of comparing oneself in terms of level of development and income level. “The fat person initially prevails in the ancient institution. He impresses, seduces… He embodies abundance by representing wealth in a world where hunger and precariousness reigned. During the Middle Ages, a doubt about the virtue of fatness emerges, even a conflict of image; it is not that the prestige of fatness suddenly disappears. On the contrary, a moral universe dwells more on the danger of excesses; it is a critique of behavior rather than of aesthetics or morbidity” (Vigarello, 2011).
The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children aged 5 to 19 continues to increase worldwide, along with eating behavior developed in obesogenic environments that not only induce sedentary lifestyles but also increased exposure to digital information. However, it has not been possible to demonstrate the effect, the influence that food marketing may have on healthy choices among children and adolescents, based solely on exposure to images and activation patterns in the brain.
What has been established, however, is the positive influence of parents’ eating habits on children; especially in adolescents, brain activity in the visual regions (left lateral occipital cortex) when exposed to images, as this is a stage of autonomy among other sociocultural factors, has a stronger influence on adolescents’ choices (Sina, Boakye, Christianson, Ahrens, & Hebestreit, 2022).
Health communication, where digital technologies have been on the rise, plays a key role in the delivery and exchange of information among individuals, communities, the health system, and public health in general; understanding people’s points of view and experiences can lead us to solid knowledge to propose better content and strategies that promote behavioral changes. In this context, the synthesis of qualitative evidence serves to build the best way to communicate when talking about health; this method may become the tool to be used by the World Health Organization -WHO in its guidelines on the use of digital technologies to strengthen health systems (Ryan & Hill, 2019).
Precisely, the WHO estimates that by 2050 the number of people over 60 years of age could reach 2.1 billion, of whom 1.7 billion will be in low- and middle-income countries, among whom an increase in obesity, overweight, and non-communicable diseases has also been reported in recent decades (Popkin et al., 2021); that is why the United Nations has declared that in the decade from 2021 to 2030, efforts should be dedicated to healthy aging based on improving access to interventions essentially oriented toward lifestyle. It is known that moderate caloric restriction reduces the incidence of chronic diseases associated with age, is safe and effective in promoting cardiometabolic health, promotes the balance of immune system cells, the bioenergetic regulation of mitochondria, and the anti-inflammatory response. Another important factor is optimal hydration, which is measured through blood sodium levels, the level of exercise or physical activity that increases energy expenditure, social interaction especially for cognitive health, memory, and language, and some studies even propose never having smoked or consumed alcohol (The Lancet, 2023).
But while between 1990 and 2010 the efforts of low- and middle-income countries were focused on reducing malnutrition, neglecting obesity rates, today the WHO calls, especially in Latin America and South Africa, for national policies aimed at regulating the consumption of added sugar, sodium, and unhealthy fats, as well as reducing the consumption of “ultra-processed” foods, including high-energy-density sugary beverages and nutrient-poor packaged foods, due to the strong association reported between their consumption and the development of non-communicable diseases and weight gain (Popkin et al., 2021).
But there is still one factor to integrate: climate change; thus, we are faced with a highly complex health scenario that the scientific community has defined as a GLOBAL SYNDEMIC, which includes 88% of the population with some sign of malnutrition—whether due to suboptimal nutrient intake or overconsumption of “unhealthy” foods—which shares common underlying factors that not only generate an impact on greenhouse gas production, but also induce sedentary lifestyles (Martorell, Ulloa, Gonzalez, Martinez-Sanguinetti, & Celis-Morales, 2020).
The dietary guidelines of Israel and Brazil already consider actions under this triple-focus approach of the global syndemic: overweight/obesity, short stature/malnutrition, and environmental sustainability; the food industry is required to develop less processed products that provide some benefit in the management of body weight and chronic non-communicable diseases, while promoting the maximum expression of genetic height potential (height-for-age index) in middle- and low-income countries.
Public health today is truly a highly complex health scenario, and it is there that our work from the private sector, as a producer of renewable energies—solar energy converted into calories, watts, and octanes—could humanize sugar and depersonalize overweight and obesity. It is not only about food decisions; it is about a sustainable production/consumption relationship.
For this document, composed of 4 articles written under the methodology of a systematic and critical review of scientific literature, the topics and guidelines that have been defined over the last two years are taken into account, key to persuasively and ethically guiding consumers regarding sugar consumption: Emotions, Sweetness, Glycemia – Insulin, and Sport.
