Unsugaring the pill

[Guest guest]

Why is it that this type news in major media is usally only available in one

newspaper in England? And why doen't the US government step up to confront these

major industries that damage the health of eveyone? And why is real information

so very hard to get?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,942394,00.html Unsugaring the

pill

The WHO should stick to its guns

Leader

Thursday April 24, 2003

The Guardian

Not since the World Health Organisation took on the tobacco barons has there

been such an international cat fight. But the new war concerns an equally

menacing public health threat. As the US surgeon general, David Warner, has

warned, obesity is quickly eclipsing tobacco as the number one threat to public

health in developed states. Indeed, it is no longer confined to affluent

societies. Obesity is becoming a growing problem, alongside the more familiar

malnutrition, in developing countries too. Over a decade on from its last

comprehensive look at diet and nutrition, the WHO launched a new report

yesterday setting out the science, which suggested sugar should be restricted to

10% of calories consumed.

Surprise, surprise, it has been met with howls of protest from the sugar

industry and the multi-billion soft drinks and food industries that manufacture

" sugar-rich " products. Worse still, as our health editor documented on Monday,

the sugar industry's opposition has not been confined to democratic debate.

Behind the scenes it has been as ruthless as the tobacco industry in trying to

coerce the WHO into withdrawing its report. Industry-subsidised " scientific "

front organisations have been set up; powerful Washington lobbyists engaged; and

most serious of all, sugar caucus congressmen recruited to bring the WHO to heal

with the threat that they would cut-off the £260m annual contribution which the

US pays to the UN agency. To its credit the WHO has resisted all these forms of

blackmail - and in doing so has won a spectacular PR victory over the lobbyists.

Just like the tobacco industry, the sugar barons remain in denial of the

devastating effects of their product. Obesity has tripled in the last 20 years.

Over half of adults in many developed states are obese, leading to 30,000

premature deaths in the UK - and 300,000 in the US - from heart or chronic

diseases. Yet still the industry insists that a 25% sugar intake is safe. All

serious research contradicts this assertion. WHO gathered together 30

international experts to draw up its report - including the leading scientist on

obesity in the US. Twenty-three national reports have already set sugar targets

of 10% or less of calorie intake. There is a second battle to come: a policy

report, which earlier drafts suggest will include calls for removal of soft

drinking vending machines in schools and a tax on high sugar products. WHO must

hold its nerve and let the science speak.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

 

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