Tough Love for the Obesity Lobby

[Guest guest]

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17649

 

 

Tough Love for the Obesity Lobby

 

By Jonathan Rowe and Gary Ruskin, AlterNet

January 23, 2004

 

Two years ago, President Bush called for a new ethos that says, " we're

responsible for our decisions. " So you'd think he'd be the first to take some

responsibility for the consequences of the actions of the country he leads. Fat

chance.

 

 

 

Instead, the Bush Administration has blocked the recent World Health

Organization's proposal to combat the spread of obesity, diabetes and related

illnesses throughout the world. The WHO proposal – called officially the Global

Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health – would encourage governments to

adopt a number of common-sense steps, from better food labeling and limits on

junk food advertising to the promotion of healthful diets with more fruits and

vegetables, and less sugar. It also urges governments to make sure that schools

promote such diets, not junk food and soda pop.

 

 

 

Hardly radical stuff. WHO's own studies show that unhealthful diets and physical

inactivity have become the leading causes of cardiovascular disease, type 2

diabetes and some types of cancer throughout the world.

 

 

 

One would think the U.S. would be eager to sign on. We know this problem

firsthand: some two-thirds of Americans are overweight. The President himself is

a fitness buff. And let's face it, much of the crescendo in global lard comes

from the junk food diet that U.S. companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo,

McDonald's and Kraft have exported.

 

 

 

Whenever the Administration wants to muddy the waters it invokes the experts in

the white coats. William R. Steiger, a top aide at the Department of Health and

Human Services (and George Bush Sr.'s godson), wrote to WHO that there are

" numerous instances " where its food policies " are not supported with sufficient

scientific evidence. "

 

 

 

Maybe the scientists employed by the junk food industry can't figure this one

out, but our grandmothers did and their grandmothers before them. Dr. Walter

Tsou, president-elect of the American Public Health Association, observed " Any

mother with any common sense knows that you don't feed your kids cookies and ice

cream every day unless you want to see them gain weight. "

 

 

 

Is it really so hard to figure out that a Big Mac and a large shake, with 1,600

calories combined, might cause some problems on the obesity front?

 

 

 

There is no shortage of science that confirms this fact. One study published in

the International Journal of Obesity found that kids who ate fast food three

times in the previous week had far higher calorie intakes – 40 and 37 percent,

respectively – than did those who did not eat fast food. Another study,

published in this month's issue of Pediatrics, estimates that the consumption of

fast food could account for an additional six pounds of weight gain per child

per year. But this research is not paid for by the junk food industry. So in the

interesting logic of the Administration, that apparently makes it " junk

science. " Kaare R. Norum, the Norwegian professor who chaired the scientific

panel that advised WHO, notes that the attacks on WHO's scientific evidence

" have not come from scientists. They have come only from industry. "

 

 

 

Steiger, the top HHS aide, wrote to WHO that the Administration " supports

personal responsibility to choose a diet conducive to individual energy balance,

weight control and health. " Steiger similarly told the Washington Post that

" what's lacking " in the WHO approach " is the notion of personal responsibility

as opposed to what the government can do. " This echoes the spokesman for the

Grocery Manufacturers of America, who said: " There is no mention [in the WHO

strategy] of what we consider to be the fundamentally important issue of

individual responsibility. "

 

 

 

The echo is not coincidental. The Bush Administration is not demanding some

personal responsibility from junk food bigwigs such as sugar magnate Jose " Pepe "

Fanjul, Safeway CEO Steven Burd, and Richard F. Hohlt, a lobbyist for Altria

(formerly Philip Morris), which is majority owner of Kraft. It is not asking

them to take responsibility for the billions of dollars they and other junk food

marketers spend seducing kids with saturation ads, nor for the obvious and

predictable consequences of these actions – i.e. the diseases associated with

the consumption of junk food.

 

 

 

Each of these junk food tycoons has purchased an indulgence in the form of

bundled $200,000 contributions to the 2004 Bush campaign – a " Ranger " in Bush

fundraising parlance.

 

 

 

The sugar industry has wanted to hobble WHO since the organization said that

free sugars should comprise less than 10% of total daily calories. Last April,

the Sugar Association actually threatened WHO that it would sic its allies in

Congress on the U.S.'s annual $406 million contributions.

 

 

 

We agree that people do need to take more responsibility for the junk they put

into their mouths, and for their failure to get off their behinds. But the

global junk food lobby has to take some responsibility for its nonstop

propaganda campaign, especially when it is aimed at children. That includes

Henry Kravis, founding partner of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, which is majority

owner of Channel One, an in-school marketing service that bombards

schoolchildren with ads for soda pop and junk food. (Mr. Kravis has bundled

$100,000 to the Bush 2004 campaign – making him a " Pioneer. " )

 

 

 

It's time for the U.S. government to stop hindering parents' efforts to instill

healthful eating habits in their kids. Forgotten in the daily barrage of junk

food ads is the way the government actually encourages these very corporations.

Under U.S. tax law for example, most corporate advertising is tax deductible.

Next time your kid throws a tantrum because you don't want to buy her another

Big Mac, you might recall that your tax dollars are helping to pay for the ads

that induced your child's snit.

 

 

 

Eighteen months ago, President Bush said, " When I talk about personal

responsibility in America, I expect there to be corporate responsibility as

well, and we will hold those to account who do not uphold those high standards

in America. "

 

 

 

The President should call Lanny Griffith and Rob Leebern, lobbyists for the

Grocery Manufacturers of America and Coke, into his office. He should tell them

that even though they each have bundled $100,000 to the Bush 2004 campaign, the

time has come for them to decide whether they are going to be part of the

problem or part of the solution – and that the government isn't going to help

them anymore if they persist in the former.

 

 

 

Then the President should get on the phone to Director-General J.W. Lee of WHO

and apologize for the moral relativists at his Department of Health and Human

Services who lack the courage to stand up to the junk food lobby.

 

 

 

Jonathan Rowe is a writer, contributing editor to The Washington Monthly, and a

founder of the Tomales Bay Institute. Gary Ruskin is a founder of Commercial

Alert.

 

 

 

 

 

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