As sales of processed foods have started to slow in wealthy parts of the world, the manufacturers of these products have been finding new markets to cater to in developing nations that not long ago only had access to their traditional diets. Pressure to increase sales has led big box food companies like Nestlé to create an industry of door-to-door sales opportunities for people in these parts of the world to sell convenient and inexpensive processed foods to people in their community. These door-to-door delivery programs make cheap food easily accessible in areas that were once plagued by hunger and offer entrepreneurial opportunities to low income communities.

This change seems excellent on the surface but in reality has led to a bizarre epidemic of once-healthy populations now struggling with both obesity and undernourishment. The percentage of overweight people in Brazil, a part of the world where these direct sales are highly prevalent, has tripled in the last ten years. This article published by The New York Times sheds light on how junk food found its way into more isolated parts of the globe and goes on to explain the economic complications that would result in trying to reduce or eliminate access to these products that whole populations are now reliant on.