Defining “junk food” has become a major challenge in writing the new laws — Oaxaca is still working on drawing up its list — in part because there are a lot of traditional Mexican snack foods that are loaded with sugar, salt and calories. For example, the drink known as “chilate” — variations are known in southern Mexico states as pozol, tejate and a host of other names — has a laundry list of high-calorie ingredients: chocolate, sugar, ground corn or rice, and even sometimes ground-up cookies. It has been consumed in Mexico in some form for hundreds of years. Traditional Mexican sweets are usually almost entirely made up of sugar, salt, tamarind and lime. But because of political and economic concerns and national pride, the lawmakers want to avoid touching traditional snack foods, and instead seek to focus on packaged foods made by multinational companies.
Mark Stevenson, 'Mexico targets junk food as obesity takes toll amid pandemic', Associated Press
