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RIO DE JANEIRO—Bela Gil hosts one of Brazil’s most popular food TV shows, Bela Cozinha, now in its fifth season. The premise is putting a hip, healthy spin on Brazilian classics—think tofurkey, but not disgusting. In one episode, Gil baked cookies using the baru nut, which tastes a bit like peanuts and is crammed with protein. Though the baru is indigenous to Brazil, many of Gil’s viewers either didn’t know what it was or couldn’t find it in stores. Some said, “‘I’ve never seen these ingredients. She's crazy,’” Gil says. To her, widespread ignorance about native foods says something profound about the country’s broader nutritional woes. As part of her mission, Gil occasionally meets with the country’s health authorities. They share a goal: To get young Brazilians to eat the traditional foods their grandparents would recognize. That means more family dinners with slow-cooked, local ingredients, and a lot less chips and soda. “Usually traditional food means homemade food, fresh food,” she told me recently in her apartment in Gavea, one of Rio’s wealthy beachfront neighborhoods. (She’s also daughter of storied Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil, and his records line her shelves.) “There's no way that instant noodles are traditional. Growing up, we always had real food at home: Rice and beans and vegetables.” Like many middle-income countries, during the past few decades Brazil has whiplashed from an epidemic of malnutrition to one of obesity. The majority of Brazilians are now overweight, and around one in seven are obese. Though Brazil’s obesity rate still pales in comparison to America’s, or even Mexico’s, it has now surpassed that of most European countries, according to the OECD. There were reportedly 4,750 extra-wide seats built into the stadiums for the World Cup, which Brazil hosted in 2014, to accommodate the heavyset. Newly middle-class Brazilians want to buy their children the sodas and snacks they never had as kids. Among the poor, less education and longer working hours translate to a greater susceptibility to junk-food marketing. The Brazilian government’s solution is an innovative food guide it released last year. The guide eschews macronutrient measurements, or stacking food in pyramids or on skeuomorphic plates, in favor of a more Pollan-esque plan for eating: Eat food, mostly stuff that has grown in Brazil for centuries, with other people. The thinking was that simple rules are easier to understand than gram measurements of protein and fat. A reasonable breakfast, according to the guide, is coffee with milk, cassava cake, cheese, and papaya. For lunch, it recommends generous portions of rice, beans, and sauteed vegetables. Dinner is more rice and beans, plus chicken and acai for dessert. Just like mamãe used to make. The health authorities’ chief villain is ultra-processed food, which comprises 22 percent of the average Brazilian’s diet. A recent study in a Brazilian medical journal found that Brazilians who consume the most ultra-processed food have worse health outcomes than those who consume the least. Thus, “reducing ultra-processed food consumption is a natural way to promote healthy eating in Brazil,” the authors concluded. That theory is bolstered by a major 2003 study by three Harvard economists which suggested that it’s snacks, rather than meals, that are primarily responsible for the rise of obesity in America. Dorky health documents rarely make a splash, but this one was quickly embraced as an ideal plan for all nations. To Vox, the Brazilian guidelines are the “best in the world.” Food-policy queen Marion Nestle dubbed them “remarkable” because “they are based on foods that Brazilians of all social classes eat every day, and consider the social, cultural, economic and environmental implications of food choices.” Now the question facing doctors, families, and Brazilian health officials alike is, will the guide work? The guide offers ten specific steps to successful eating, all illustrated with pictures of ideal meals. 1. Make natural or minimally processed foods the basis of your diet In the guide’s words, these are “nutritionally balanced, delicious, culturally appropriate, and supportive of socially and environmentally sustainable food systems.” People should seek out a variety, but the guide specifically touts “beans and lentils, rice and corn, potato and cassava, tomatoes and squash, orange and banana, chicken and fish.” Most health experts agree that fresh, whole foods are good for weight control because they are harder to gorge on. 2. Use oils, fats, salt, and sugar in small amounts when seasoning and cooking The guide says you should use these substances sparingly, but not avoid them altogether: “Oils, fats, salt, and sugar contribute to diverse and delicious diets without making them nutritionally unbalanced,” it reads. As Carlos Monteiro, a doctor based at University of Sao Paulo, whose Center for Epidemiological Studies in Health and Nutrition helped conceive the guide, told Grist, “Without oil and sugar, at least in Brazil, you cannot cook and prepare meals.” This is where the guide departs from that of the U.S. and other countries. It considers things like bread, cheese, and canned fruit to be “processed food,” and suggests these should be a smaller part of people’s diets than whole fruits and vegetables. The guide provides a litany of “ultra-processed” treats it considers verboten: “Fatty, sweet or salty packaged snacks, biscuits (cookies), ice-creams, candies and confectionery in general; cola, soda, and other soft drinks; sweetened juices and ‘energy’ drinks; sweetened breakfast cereals; cakes and cake mix, and cereal bars; sweetened and flavoured yogurts and dairy drinks…” It calls these foods “nutritionally unbalanced.” “As a result of their formulation and presentation, they tend to be consumed in excess,” it says. It goes so far as to suggest all these chips and cookies are ruining the Brazilian culture and landscape: “Their means of production, distribution, marketing, and consumption damage culture, social life, and the environment.” 5. Eat regularly and carefully in appropriate environments and, whenever possible, in company “Avoid snacking between meals. Eat slowly and enjoy what you are eating, without engaging in another activity. Eat in clean, comfortable and quiet places, where there is no pressure to consume unlimited amounts of food. Whenever possible, eat in company, with family, friends, or colleagues: this increases the enjoyment of food and encourages eating regularly, attentively, and in appropriate environments.”
