A healthy and nutrient-balanced diet is essential to promoting health and well-being, supporting active lifestyles, preventing malnutrition and reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as CVD, diabetes and certain types of cancer. The principles of a healthy diet are adequacy, by providing enough essential nutrients; balance, by ensuring appropriate energy intake and limiting foods or beverages high in sugar, saturated and trans-fats; moderation, by reducing the consumption of foods with detrimental health effects; and diversity, by including a variety of vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and whole grains daily (WHO/FAO, 2024[1]). The LAC region faces the world’s highest cost of a healthy diet while tackling the double burden of malnutrition, which contributes to an annual GDP loss of up to 16% (WFP, 2025[2]).
In 13 LAC countries, 19.9% of the population consumed more than one packaged ultra-processed salty snack in the previous day or night in 2023 (Figure 4.13). Differences exist between urban and rural areas, with urban areas reporting higher consumption of these food items (20.3%) compared to rural areas (18.3%). This pattern is observed in all 13 LAC countries except Ecuador, Nicaragua and Chile, where consumption in rural areas is 5, 3 and 1 p.p. higher than in urban areas, respectively. Regarding total population prevalence, Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica report the highest levels of salty snacks consumption, with 27%, 35.1% and 38.9% of people reporting eating these food items. In contrast, Peru, Brazil and Paraguay are the countries with the lowest consumption, all below 12%.
In addition, the WHO recommends that adults eat at least 400 grammes – or five or more portions – of fruit and vegetables per day. Across 13 LAC countries, 9.2% of the total population reports consuming no vegetables or fruits in the previous 24 hours (Figure 4.14). On average, this share is lower in urban areas at 8.2% than in rural areas at 10.4%, except in Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic. The largest urban-rural gaps are found in Honduras, Nicaragua and Ecuador, where zero consumption in rural areas exceeds urban levels by with 8.2, 7.7 and 5.2 p.p., respectively. This could be explained by the fact that rural residents often have less access to affordable healthy food and food diversity than urban area residents, combined with fewer years of education and lower income levels (Gonçalves et al., 2023[3]).
Excessive fast-food consumption is associated with higher levels of visceral adipose tissue, liver fat and odds of having metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (Odegaard et al., 2022[4]). In 2023, 5.6% of the population in 13 LAC countries report having consumed fast food during the previous day, or night is 5.6% in 2023 (Figure 4.15). Fast-food consumption is higher in urban (6.7%) than in rural areas (3.2%) across all analysed countries. The largest differences are observed in Chile, Costa Rica and Paraguay, where gaps exceed 5 p.p. between urban and rural populations.
The region’s nutritional transition has been driven by rapid economic development in many LAC countries over the past decades, which has brought major lifestyle changes with direct implications for people’s health. Diets have shifted toward more Westernised diets and increased access to ultra-processed products. At the same time, unplanned rural-to‑urban migration and increased physical inactivity have resulted in increasing overweight and obesity along with persistent high rates of stunting and micronutrient deficiencies, a phenomenon described as the double burden of malnutrition (WFP, 2025[2]). Across the region in 2020, 131 million people could not afford a healthy diet, disproportionately affecting those living in the most vulnerable situations and low socio‑economic status and limiting their access to more nutritious foods due to higher prices (FAO et al., 2023[5]).
