Our members Carlos Monteiro and Marion Nestle will not be eating a
cheeseburger, ‘logo’ of our ultra-processing series, for this or any lunch

‘In the current era, multinational corporations rule the world, and few have the courage to speak out against the threat they pose to democratic social institutions and to social justice’. This is part of Marion Nestle's citation in the form she submitted it, explaining why Carlos Monteiro is now named by the national weekly news magazine Época as one of the 100 most influential Brazilians. She says that he ‘has the courage of his convictions. He is willing to speak out against food company hypocrisies such as the claims by soft drink companies that they are the solution to worldwide nutrition problems rather than the cause of such problems’.

She goes on to write, mostly as printed in the edited version: ‘His 2010 commentary in World Nutrition, the online Journal of the World Public Health Nutrition Association ‘The big issue is ultra-processing’, gained worldwide attention, and for good reason. It called attention to the manufacture, sales, and marketing of highly processed foods as a contributor to rising rates of obesity throughout the world. Processing removes nutrients from food, and adds excess fats, sugar, sodium, and calories. The heavy promotion of such foods in developing countries has become a major source of revenue to multinational food companies at the price of obesity and its consequences and dental disease among children and adults’. The citation in Época is accessible at http://revistaepoca.globo.com/Revista/Epoca/0,,EMI194875-17445,00.html

Marion continues by saying that Carlos’s courageous work is providing evidence that helps leaders in the US stop the marketing of toys in fast-food meals, to restrict fast food joints near schools, and to impose taxes on sugared drinks. Marion herself has been named among the ‘100 women who shape our city’ by the New York Daily News. Commenting, Carlos says: ‘All of us who work in public health nutrition have a responsibility to see what is going on, and to speak out as best we can, personally and collectively. This is an honour for me personally and professionally. It also recognises the importance of public health nutrition in countries like mine, and the achievements of my colleagues at the school of public health at the University of São Paulo’. He adds: ‘Let me emphasise that my work has now become nationally and internationally known in great part because of the Association, and because of World Nutrition. I joined the Association because I felt that at last, a global organisation was being created that would remain independent of the influence of conflicted industry, that has deeply penetrated the profession and practice of nutrition. This is also why I applied to be a member of our Council and am glad to serve the Association in this way. Further, WN is the one journal in our field that has a broad vision of our work, and that is devoted to ideas, debate and discussion’.

Association president Barrie Margetts says: ‘My work for our Association is motivated above all by commitment to the welfare and health of vulnerable populations in disadvantaged parts of the world. Carlos is showing, in his commentaries on ultra-processing, that all over the world, meals are being replaced by snacks, and traditional food cultures are being replaced by fast food joints. Carlos’s work is a giant wake-up call to us all. We are proud to be publishing his work’. Website and WN editor Geoffrey Cannon adds: ‘At the latest count, Carlos’s first commentary in our November WN, has been accessed and opened by over 16,000 readers. Almost half of these are in the USA, and the rest are evidently in over 50 countries all over the world. We are continuing to publish Carlos’s commentaries in WN, starting this month’.

‘I cannot state strongly enough how important his work is to the ideals and practice of public health nutrition’ Marion Nestle concludes, in her citation as submitted. ‘Few public health professionals have the courage to seek the truth and to state the truth as they see it. His work should inspire colleagues and students to act on their own convictions to create a healthier and more equitable world. He deserves much recognition for his work’.