Sugar Association Challenges link to illness

April 30, 2003

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

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

leading nutrition scientists 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 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 diet and exercise

to 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