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 Health & Beauty | May 2005 
Instant Soup Becoming Staple For The Poor
 Guillermina Guillén - El Universal
Mexicans living in extreme poverty paid 27 million pesos (US2.45 million) for nutrient-poor instant soups last year alone, according to documents obtained by El Universal through the Federal Institute for Public Information Access (IFAI).
The documents from lowincome food supplier Diconsa, which supplies basic food packages, or canastas basicas, in 22,206 stores nationwide, also show a 600 percent rise in sales of the soups in marginalized areas over the last nine years.
The demand for the instant meals among the poor has obliged the government to include them in the Canasta Contigo program announced by President Vicente Fox last February.
The federal program is negotiating with various providers of the soups to freeze prices on the items through 2005.
There is growing concern, however, that the instant soups manufactured by companies such as Maruchan, Nissin, Knorr and Milunch are replacing the corn tortilla products that have been the highly-nutritious staple of the poor for centuries.
Such is the case in Metlatónoc, a mountain-side town in Guerrero state identified by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as the poorest community in the nation.
The National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Communities announced that the diet in Metlatónoc has in fact begun to make the change from corn tortillas to instant soups.
Teresita González de Cossio Martínez, a member of the National Center for Health Research a branch of the National Public Health Institute spoke to El Universal about the issue. The researcher, who is part of the team putting together the 2005 National Nutrition Survey, confirmed that malnutrition in children is on the rise in rural zones, especially in the south of the nation, while the incidence of obesity and overweight children is simultaneously on the rise in the same areas due to the increased consumption of food high in fat and carbohydrates and containing little other nutritional value.
González de Cossio stressed that their diet needs to be reinforced with minerals and vitamins, as can be found in fruits and vegetables, and that the instant soups that are very popular right now have little to none of these valuable nutrients.
The instant soups "do not have a high levels of nutrients, they generate environmental contamination, they don't have a significant amount of vitamins or minerals, they lack fiber and have high levels of salt, which can provoke high blood pressure and strokes."
Nevertheless, the researcher pointed out how the situation could be made better: "There is no reason to demonize the soups when they can be greatly improved with the addition of vegetables such as carrots, potatoes and peas, among others, enriching them with Iron and Vitamin C for example."
The nutrition scientist noted that for whatever food the public has embraced, it is possible to enrich it using modern technology.
"If instant soups are convenient for those with little money or little time, it's important to make those foods as healthy as possible," said González de Cossio.
The Diconsa documents also point out that overall those living below the poverty line in the states of Sinaloa, Nayarit and Sonora have been the principle consumers of the soups since they were first available in Diconsa stores in 1996. But in the last two years, Chiapas and Veracruz have taken the top spots indicating the states' populations as the fasting growing market for the product. |
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