why do I have the feeling that if there was less sugar in third world formula they'd be bitching about that too
"Nestle doesn't want global south children to enjoy their formula! Did you know they add honey in Canada, can you believe it?!"
Because you didn't read the very first sentence of the article.
Yes, and if it was the other way it might go:
Nestlé, the world’s largest consumer goods company, removes sugar and honey to infant milk and cereal products sold in many poorer countries, raising concerns from equity campaigners.
No, not really considering their position is that sugar and honey should not be added to baby food to begin with. Or that Nestle doesn't add either to most of their products sold in the first world.
Sugar is frequently added to cheaper foods as a preservative so it's shelf stable longer. "Whole wheat" bread sold at Dollar General will have more sugar than "whole wheat" bread sold at Trader Joe's, for instance. This probably explains the phenomenon in the article, although it's not a good thing. Poor people are at greater risk of diabetes and that's probably part of the reason why.
Also a laughable strawman from dead0man that people would be complaining it's "too healthy."
Poor people being at greater risk of diabetes is an American thing. In the developing world, its rich people that are more at risk since sugar is an expensive luxury. In some countries, diabetes is even considered a rich persons disease.
This of course has nothing to do with Nestle's adding sugar in poor countries.
That wasn't my point (I was speaking specifically about America there, where Dollar General stores are) but calling it "an American thing" is not accurate. 9 of the 10 most obese countries in the world are Pacific Islands (with the correlating diabetes rates) and part of the reason is because most of their food is imported with these preservatives as mentioned. They are basically eating what you would buy at Dollar General.
If this is the primary reason, then why aren't whites/Asians also affected by it? For example, in Hawaii Native Hawaiians are very fat (almost at Samoan levels), but the non-Pacific Islander populations are not notably more fat than the American mainland. Anecdotally, there was a small Samoan community near where I lived growing up that was very fat, despite living in California.
https://hhdw.org/health-topics/obesity-2/"In Hawai’i, while 24.5% of adults had obesity in 2020, prevalence is significantly higher among Other Pacific Islanders (43.6%) and Native Hawaiians (40.0%) and lowest among Other Asian (13.2%) and Japanese (18.1%) (BRFSS). A similar pattern is seen among high school students."
I suspect that the real cause here is at least in part genetic. Historically, the Pacific Islands were settled by impressive voyages across thousands of miles of open ocean. Unlike Europeans/Asians, the Pacific Islanders did not produce large sailing ships, so they tended to travel by canoe instead. The small size of these canoes might have made it important to be able to stow large stores of body fat.
Here is an article from CNN on the topic:
https://www.cnn.com/2015/05/01/health/pacific-islands-obesity/index.html#"Some scientists believe that Pacific island populations have evolved to maintain their larger build – a concept known as the “Thrifty Gene” hypothesis. For this region of the world, the concept is based on the fact Pacific islanders once endured long journeys at sea and those who fared best stored enough energy in the form of fat to survive their journey."
"“We have the remnants of those people … and their metabolism as well,” says Waqanivalu. The increased risk of obesity among native Pacific islanders is shown on the islands of Fiji, where the population has a more mixed ethnicity. The country stands at the lower end of the region’s spectrum with 36.4% of the adult population classed as obese. Just more than half of the Fijian population are native iTaukei, with the remainder mostly of Indian origin, according to the CIA World Factbook. “That explains the lower rates,” says Waqanivalu."
