How hunger and obesity coexist in Brazil

Despite being one of the world’s major food producers, Brazil experiences an unsettling paradox: the country is both underfed and overfed. Obesity levels are increasing at an alarming rate, having gone from 11.8 percent in 2006 to 19.8 percent of adults now (a 68-percent increase). These numbers could serve to corroborate recent statements by President Jair Bolsonaro and Citizenship Minister Osmar Terra, both of whom claimed that hunger is no longer a Brazilian problem.

Except it is.

According to the UN, Brazil is one of the 51 countries most exposed to risks of malnutrition—next to countries like Ethiopia, Indonesia, and various Western African and Central Asian nations. The organization says that hunger is significantly worse in countries where agricultural system are highly sensitive to weather variations—and Brazil fits the bill. Between 2011 and 2016, the country suffered severe climate events, ranging from droughts to floods.

This paradox (which is not exclusive to Brazil) is mainly caused by social vulnerabilities—whether it is because people don’t eat as much as they need, or because they can only afford cheaper food, which is often over-processed and filled with addictive, junk products. That leads to a new type of malnutrition—you can be overweight and poorly-nourished at the same time.

Sugar and processed foods are to blame

According to the Health Ministry’s latest survey...