Alan Espinosa, SM ’22, is striving to show how food and lifestyle changes could boost Mexicans’ health April 28, 2021 – Alan Espinosa first realized the connection between diet and health as a teenager, when his family moved from his native Mexico City to the city of Mérida on the Yucatan Peninsula. “I encountered a very diverse culture of food,” he said about the city, a melting pot of Mayan and Spanish influence. Many residents, however, relied on a diet high in fatty corn oil, sugar, starch, and processed foods, and lived sedentary lifestyles. “There was a high prevalence of noncommunicable diseases, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension,” he said.