Author(s)

Tatiane Andreazza Lucchese¹, Amanda Maia Breis¹, Karine Rucker¹, Vagner Rosa Bizarro¹, Lis Marina Mesquita Araújo¹, Alessandre Gomes¹, Mikele Torino Paletti¹, Ana Luísa Conceição de Jesus¹, Marcella Garcez Duarte², Denise Rosso Tenório Wanderley Rocha¹, Alberto Krayyem Arbex^1,3

¹Division of Endocrinology, IPEMED Medical School (IPEMED), Sao Paulo, Brazil.
²Brazilian Association of Nutrology (ABRAN), Catanduva, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
³Visiting Scholar, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, USA.

Diabetes and obesity are major health hazards in Latin America nowadays. Their prevalence has steadily increased since the eighties. Today, more than 50% of the population are overweight, 15% has obesity and 6% to 15% has diabetes. The nutrition transition is a long-term process that brings chronic metabolic diseases as an undesired consequence, whilst ultra processed foods become increasingly part of daily food choices. These changes bring impacts in all fields of daily life, especially in the economic and legal fields—the “Right to Health”—and regarding autonomy of the individual and their choices, when confronted with an ideal of health and well-being. Governments and citizens struggle to propose new pathways and find effective solutions to control both epidemics and solve these issues. This article poses the evolution of diabetes and obesity in the Mercosur, seeking a better understanding of these chronic, non-communicable diseases, and looking for concrete, effective solutions towards health in South America.

Obesity, Diabetes, Mercosur, Nutrition Transition, Right to Health, South America

Lucchese, T. , Breis, A. , Rucker, K. , Bizarro, V. , Araújo, L. , Gomes, A. , Paletti, M. , de Jesus, A. , Duarte, M. , Rocha, D. and Arbex, A. (2016) Diabetes, Obesity and the Nutrition Transition in the Mercosur. Open Journal of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, 6, 28-37. doi: 10.4236/ojemd.2016.61005.