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Western fast food companies are aggressively expanding in Brazil

nytimes.com

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Re: Western fast food companies are aggressively expanding in Brazil

#51

Post by bragh »

adventured wrote: post #49
candiodari wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Employers are involved and apply pressure to employees. That sounds like hell.

It is hell, for someone not used to it or someone over the fat line. Google "Japan fat shaming" for some idea of how abusive they are toward fat people culturally. They're not the only ones though, South Korea and China also have weaker variations of aggressive cultural fat shaming.

It always seemed that South Korea's attitude was harsher thanks to the manhwa (especially Lookism). But now that I think about it, Japanese manga do not even feature fat characters unless they are completely irredeemable social outcasts.

Re: Western fast food companies are aggressively expanding in Brazil

#52

Post by binarray2000 »

adventured wrote: post #49
candiodari wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Employers are involved and apply pressure to employees. That sounds like hell.

It is hell, for someone not used to it or someone over the fat line. Google "Japan fat shaming" for some idea of how abusive they are toward fat people culturally. They're not the only ones though, South Korea and China also have weaker variations of aggressive cultural fat shaming.

I'm curious: How is "fat shaming" applied to sumo wrestlers? They are probably big (no pun intended) stars in Japan.

Re: Western fast food companies are aggressively expanding in Brazil

#53

Post by adventured »

grecy wrote: post #36

I saw McDonalds being built in dirt-street towns in Guatemala, I saw lines three blocks long at KFC in South America, and I've seen many Porsches and Ferrarris in the parking lots of American fast food joints in third world countries. I am utterly shocked they have not moved into Africa yet. I've just driven tens of thousands of miles through 17 countries without a single Mcdonalds. Between Morocco and South Africa,…

> I am utterly shocked they have not moved into Africa yet.

Africa's (generalizing) median income has just begun to climb high enough in the last 10-15 years, to be financially interesting to the US fast-food companies.

Nigeria's GDP in 1999 was... $35 billion, for a population of 119 million people, or roughly $300 per capita. That leaves very little money in the bottom 2/3 for buying fast-food. Today Nigeria's GDP is closer to ~$400 billion for 186 million people (call it $2,000 per capita), a tremendous leap in economic capability.

Many other nations in Africa have seen similar results.

Consider that Kenya's GDP at a low point in 1993, was just $5 or $6 billion.... It's $70 billion today.

Or Ethiopia, from $7.x billion in 2002, to $72 billion today and still climbing rapidly.

Most likely these nations become appealing business opportunities for all sorts of foreign companies (whether US or European or Chinese etc), with the rapidly rising disposable incomes.

Re: Western fast food companies are aggressively expanding in Brazil

#54

Post by GordonS »

candiodari wrote: post #48
ljf wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a 300 calorie drink is of no issue if you have a long walk to school where you are physically active, to your manual job or your day spent looking after your family and manually cleaning and managing your home. 2000 calories is the recommended level for sedentary westerners.

Well, my issue with fruit juice is that one or even two aren't enough to not feel thirsty anymore. And any walk that takes 600-900 calories to get to my job is not one I'll actually take on a regular basis. A good estimate is 30-50 calories per kilometer, so a single glass of juice requires, let's say, a 5 kilometer walk to compensate. I'm a mostly sedentary westerner, but I don't think I've eaten 2000 calories in a…

I've never heard of anyone drinking 900 calories of fruit juice! Is this an American thing?

Re: Western fast food companies are aggressively expanding in Brazil

#55

Post by keldaris »

candiodari wrote: post #29
dasil003 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Brazilian-American who spent many years in both countries from the 1980s until today, you're misrepresenting things a bit. First of all, the juice concentrates are a newish thing, 20 years ago it was still common to make fruit juice from scratch at home every day. Also, farofa is fried (more like sauteed, it doesn't need that much oil) yucca flour, which is a world away from refined white flour. Growing up, lunc…

Fruit juice is pretty bad on the calories regardless of added sugar or not. I mean, the sugar doesn't help, and has other bad effects (teeth, most notably). But the issue with fruit juice is just how much fruit you need to make it. One glass of apple juice is 3-4 apples. An apple is 60-80 calories. That makes that glass about 300 calories, which is ridiculous. It's a bit less bad with orange juice, although like lemo…

Where have you seen a glass of apple juice with 300 kcal? In my (European) experience it's barely a hundred or so. Is this some American version that consists of vaguely apple-flavored sugar or something? I'm actually slightly envious because I'm a tad underweight (and with a very low body fat percentage) and find gaining weight difficult.

Re: Western fast food companies are aggressively expanding in Brazil

#56

Post by hsod »

icelancer wrote: post #18
shihching wrote: post #13

> At one meeting, a representative from the food industry accused Anvisa of trying to subvert parental authority, saying mothers had the right to decide what to feed their children, recalled Vanessa Schottz, a nutrition advocate. The same argument is used in the US to thwart limitations on sugary beverage purchases and other junk food with SNAP -- these compose 10-20% of purchases, 50% of which goes to Wal-Mart, alon…

>>The same argument is used in the US to thwart limitations on sugary beverage purchases and other junk food with SNAP Those living under the poverty line don't like being hit with condescending statements coming from those who are supposedly trying to help them, either. Conservatives/Republicans at least call the poor lazy. Liberals/Democrats who want to restrict sugar/luxury items from EBT/SNAP often make ridiculou…

Isn't SNAP is already restricted from tons of other things?

Re: Western fast food companies are aggressively expanding in Brazil

#57

Post by adventured »

binarray2000 wrote: post #52
adventured wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is hell, for someone not used to it or someone over the fat line. Google "Japan fat shaming" for some idea of how abusive they are toward fat people culturally. They're not the only ones though, South Korea and China also have weaker variations of aggressive cultural fat shaming.

I'm curious: How is "fat shaming" applied to sumo wrestlers? They are probably big (no pun intended) stars in Japan.

As you would imagine with most nations and cultural extremes that benefit entertainment or celebrity, it's an exception. Being obese for the purpose of Sumo, is regarded as entirely different versus being obese because of poor discipline / lifestyle reasons.

Re: Western fast food companies are aggressively expanding in Brazil

#58

Post by 127 »

crazygringo wrote: post #4

As an American who lived in Brazil for 8 years, honestly I'm not sure this is any worse than traditional food. A typical Brazilian lunch is a piece of meat with beans, sides of rice, french fries, and fried flour (farofa) -- that's right, 3 carbs of empty calories (2 fried) and no real vegetables -- all washed down with mostly-added-sugar "fruit juice concentrate" (cashew apple is really common). Bar snacks are 100%…

I thought beans is good nutrition wise?

Re: Western fast food companies are aggressively expanding in Brazil

#59

Post by adventured »

hellofunk wrote: post #42

This makes me sad for Brazil. I have heard, though cannot confirm myself, that Japan had one of the healthiest societies in the world until fast food expanded there a couple decades ago, causing many problems common in the States, like obesity and diabetes and blood pressure issues, to significantly increase in frequency there.

It's worth noting that Latin America has plenty of nations that have struggled with obesity due to poor local diets even longer than the US has, including Mexico, Chile, Belize, Brazil and El Salvador. The US obesity problem began in the late 1980s.

Re: Western fast food companies are aggressively expanding in Brazil

#60

Post by adventured »

sagivo wrote: post #28

In Israel fast food costs more than normal food. Vegetables are relatively cheep to the US ($3 for avocado??) And in general "fast" food is not a value people appreciate over "healthy". One of the ways to fight obesity is by taxation and lowering the costs of healthy food. When salad will cost less than a burger (and there's no economic reason it shouldn't) people will choose it.

The US has among the lowest food costs of any developed nation. Compared to our disposable income (which is far higher than most other developed nations), it's even more so.

For the majority of Americans, the last thing they have to worry about is the cost of vegetables.

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