“Outside Foods” and “Wealthy - Healthy – Chubby” in the New Urban Food Environments : Evidence from India and Mexico

Concepts of food environments encompass the contexts in which individual food decisions are made in relation to larger food systems. They help understand phenomena like underweight and hunger, and also the less delineated expression of malnutrition, being overweight and obesity. The latter is, in fact, the more widespread problem nowadays, both geographically and as a percentage (FAO, 2019). Moreover, figures are not only particularly high, but also soaring (Pingali, 2007; Pingali et al. 2019). These overall trends indicate that overweight and obesity are systemically embedded in the food system, representing numerous health risks for which the individual cannot be principally held responsible. Nonetheless, the conditioning mechanisms become palpable in individual food consumption patterns and diets. On these grounds, this paper examines how the individual food consumption relates to adult obesity in Low and Middle Income Countries, which coins the New Urban Food Environments. The term defines what studies from the 2010s have shown: urban areas in Low and Middle Income Countries are particularly affected by the overweight and obesity epidemic (HLPE, CFS 2017; GBD, Ng et al. 2014). More specifically, with at least 60 percent of the world’s obese individuals residing in India and Mexico (ibid.), it is safe to assume that these countries’ metropolis in fact belong to the epicenters of obesity. In this study, in-depth interviewing and mapping was employed to retrieve data in the southern metropolis of both India and Mexico: in Hyderabad and in Mérida. The two data sets allow for a more precise distinction of culturally specific aspects, respectively of South Asian and Latin American food environments, and thereby grant more generalizable results for Low and Middle Income Countries as well. So far, the findings detected intersectional inequalities of class, gender and generational difference, as well as colonial legacy to determine the food environment and obesity relationship most significantly. In the Indian context, commonly employed aspirational expressions like ”outside foods“, and the synonymously used words ”wealthy - healthy - chubby“ reveal some depths of that relationship. Turning points for non-disease related weight gain were: taking up a sedentary occupation, marriage and performing parenthood, digital food services, increased screen time, and Covid-related restrictions. In conclusion, this paper provides insights into the obesity epidemics by shedding light on various facets of individual food environments (personal background, corporeality, discourse, digitalization, infrastructure, food providers, and food items) from a consumption practices’ perspective. Finally, the paper opens perspectives on the ongoing research with a mobile application to transform obesogenic food environments towards overall sustainability in cooperation with the Indian National Institute of Nutrition, and provides insights on local best practices.