Sugar Association Challenges link to illness

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http://www.iht.com/articles/94145.html The Sugar Association in the United States is lobbying Congress to challenge more than $400 million for the World Health Organization because of a nutrition report, to be published Wednesday, that says the high consumption of sugar contributes to obesity, chronic diseases and tooth decay. .A key element of the report recommends that added sugars be limited to less than 10 percent of daily calorie intake. .The director-general of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, and the director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization, Jacques Diouf, are to express their support for the report Wednesday in Rome. ."We are very mad," said Andrew Briscoe, president of the Sugar Association. "It does not take a rocket scientist to see that the report is inappropriate." .The report, by an international team of experts, was commissioned by the WHO and FAO, both United Nations organizations. It is intended to advise governments on diet and exercise to deal with treating the incientists and that no pressure had been placed on them to include or disregard information. .Briscoe said the Sugar Association, which represents 160,000 growers and producers, took issue with the report because it lacked good science, due process, peer review and an analysis of economic impact. .He said it was a waste of taxpayers' money, which was why the association was asking Congress to withhold money from the WHO. .The U.S. Senate's Sweetener Caucus, made up of members from states with sugar interests, is pressing the government to try to block publication of the report. .The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group, said it was to be expected that the association would oppose any suggestion that sugar contributed to obesity and dental diseases. ."But we're shocked by the bluntness of the Sugar Association's thuggish threats," said the center's executive director, Michael Jacobson. "There's nothing sweet about Big Sugar's blackmail campaign, and we applaud the WHO and FA deal with treating the increasing number of people - both in developed and increasingly in developing countries - who die each year from chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes and obesity. .It says people should eat more fresh fruit and vegetables and fewer foods rich in fats and sugar, as well as undertake moderate physical activity for an hour a day. .But the Sugar Association, which represents cane and beet growers and sugar refiners in the United States, said the report's 10 percent recommendation "cannot go unchallenged." .The group accused the organizations of having ignored recommendations by the Food Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States last year, which said "not more than 25 percent of total calories should come from added sugars." .Briscoe said that that study was independent and had not been influenced or financed by the food industry. .A spokesman for the FAO said that its report had been drawn up by a team of ld we applaud the WHO and FAO for resisting it." The Sugar Association in the United States is lobbying Congress to challenge more than $400 million for the World Health Organization because of a nutrition report, to be published Wednesday, that says the high consumption of sugar contributes to obesity, chronic diseases and tooth decay. .A key element of the report recommends that added sugars be limited to less than 10 percent of daily calorie intake. .The director-general of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, and the director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization, Jacques Diouf, are to express their support for the report Wednesday in Rome. ."We are very mad," said Andrew Briscoe, president of the Sugar Association. "It does not take a rocket scientist to see that the report is inappropriate." .The report, by an international team of experts, was commissioned by the WHO and FAO, both United Nations organizations. It is intended to advise governments on dThe complete "Whole Body" Health line consists of the "AIM GARDEN TRIO" Ask About Health Professional Support Series: AIM Barleygreen