Mexico, Junk Food Labels - A Great Approach

 

Short Break on a Long Beach

Todos Santos Mexico

Healthy Choices! Could this be at least partially the result of the Newish junk food labeling requirements in Mexico? I suspect the answer is yes.

Too many calories, too much saturated fat, too much salt. Yeah, hard pass.

Oh look! This won 5 stickers. Hard pass.

Too many calories, sugar, saturated fat. Maybe I'll snack on some carrots instead.

Just back from a short visit to San José del Cabo and Todos Santos in Baja California, Mexico. The towns were lovely, the people warm and welcoming, the beaches awe inspiring.

Visiting local grocery stores, I was struck by the junk food warning labels. To help fight obesity and a number of health problems known to be caused or made worse by poor diet choices, the Mexican government implemented this labeling requirement in October of 2021. I was struck by the labels, and I also noted what people had in their carts. Wow! No Coke, no chips, no cookies-- a lot of fruit, some bottles of water, fish...

I have to wonder why in the world Canada (my country) has not noted this exceptional legislation and copied it. It's simple, and does not cost the population anything (unlike taxing junk food), leaving the choice to the consumer (and to the manufacture in that they are free to improve their ingredients to get some, or all, of the black stop signs off their product). I think it takes some boldness (read low intelligence, ha) to grab something on the shelf with 4, 5, or, gasp, 6 black stop signs. This is a good thing. The health issues caused by poor diet cause not just misery for the individual, but society as a whole (we all pay for sick, disabled people).

Come on Canada! Get with this.