**4. Health impacts: an analysis of the main determinants**

The changes in health with an increase in the prevalence of chronic degenerative diseases are increasing according to the statistics at the world and national level. These results are a summary of the main problems that continue to be sustained in the country such as obesity, overweight, dyslipidemia, hypertension and an innovation in this survey is the data on blood lead levels and the frontal labeling questionnaire (**Table 3**). For physical activity, only 29% of the population performs physical activity for less than 150 minutes per week and the other extreme, 28.1% performs 1680 minutes per week. The survey separates figures for food security and breastfeeding by urban and rural area, but those presented in the table are for urban areas.

For the consumption of fruit, vegetables, and legumes, they were below 50% of the different age groups except for the consumption of legumes that was 54.4 for the group of 20 and over. For non-recommended foods, non-dairy drinks sweetened or with added sugars were among the highest for the population of all age groups without difference, being in a range 83.3% for the group of 1 to 4 years to 85.5% for the group 20 and over [33].

On health issues and at the time this review is being carried out, we can observe that sufficient evidence has been generated on the impacts on the industrialization

#### *Natural History and Ecology of Mexico and Central America*


#### **Table 3.**

*Comparison between main results of the ENSANUT\* 2012 vs. 2018.*

of food and accessibility to them by the population, a recent study found that the consumption of two glasses a day of soda was associated with higher mortality [OR, 1.17; 95% CI: 1.11–1.22; P < 0.001], mainly in participants who presented obesity, although not for those who were overweight [34].

#### **4.1 The meaning of eating**

What are the impacts of the industrial revolution up to the era of globalization? Where mobility and commercial exchange (products, services, and food) is more efficient while work and family life is more sedentary and inheritance or eating habits are acquired from social networks, television, different media [17]. The integration of sugar and with it a boom in sugar mills until its replacement in the era of biofuels (high fructose corn syrup). Although the factors associated with obesity and chronic diseases are multiple, the medical literature shows that the consumption of sugary drinks and diets with high energy density are two of the risk factors that contribute to the excess burden of these diseases.

The act of eating is complex, food has a vital component by providing nutrients for the functioning of the human body or organism; but food has cultural meanings, attributes, it is something more than the sum of food, something more than its nutrients or culinary preparation or knowing the origin of these [17]. This meaning will depend on internal and external factors, the latter such as social, political and economic factors that give meaning and that act becomes beyond thinking only about nutrients and health. This must be considered to integrate the meanings.
