Paper short abstract:

Drawing on my fieldwork, I will explore possible links between the increased obesity prevalence among the Mongolian population and the changing street food environment on Peace Avenue in Ulaanbaatar.

Paper long abstract:

Modernisation and the globalisation of the food supply have influenced the food consumption of people across the world (Ulijaszek, 2017), and advances in food processing have resulted in greater availability, affordability, and marketing of fulfilling and tempting processed food on the streets. Ice cream vendors often outnumber vendors that sell water bottles on Peace Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Ulaanbaatar during the summer. Street foods meet the growing demand for fast, convenient, and affordable processed food in Ulaanbaatar, where about half of the Mongolian population lives today. Despite the greater availability of processed, high-calorie foods, minimally processed, fresh and nutritious foods are often not available on the street. The prevalence of overweight and obesity in Mongolia has increased distinctly between 2005 and 2013 among all age groups (Chimeddamba et al., 2016), even though the relationship between the rapidly changing urban foodscapes and the increased rates of obesity in the country is not well recognised. Drawing on my fieldwork in Mongolia, I will explore possible links between the increased obesity prevalence among the Mongolian population and the changing street food environment on Peace Avenue in Ulaanbaatar.