Fat Chance

January 21, 2004

56.5 million??? I had no idea it was so high. Could that be a misprint??? Must be 5.65 million.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8454938%255E23289,00.html

Fat chance, says US, to anti-obesity planFrom agenciesJanuary 22, 2004

THE US earned the wrath of health experts and foreign governments yesterday for opposing a World Health Organisation plan to fight global obesity by targeting junk food and soft drinks.Bush administration officials told WHO's executive board in Geneva that diet was a matter for individual responsibility. There was no firm scientific evidence that sugar and high-calorie processed food was the main cause of obesity, they said. The objections of the US, where two-thirds of the population is overweight and 30 per cent of adults are obese, forced WHO to delay the release of the report to consider changes. Health experts, including Kaare Norum, a Norwegian who heads the WHO advisory panel on obesity, accused Washington of acting in the interests of the food and sugar industries, significant donors to the Republican party. The US opposition, spelled out in a letter to WHO by US Health Department official William Steiger, took the UN agency by surprise. "The assertion that heavy marketing of energy-dense foods or fast food outlets increases the risk of obesity is supported by almost no data," Mr Steiger said. Countering a proposal to restrict advertising, he added: "No data have yet clearly demonstrated that the advertising on children's television causes obesity." The draft WHO plan, Global Strategy on Diet, Physical, Activity and Health, calls on governments to promote exercise and discourage the consumption of fat, sugary food through education, pricing and restrictions on advertising. But Mt Steiger said: "Government-imposed solutions are not always appropriate. People need to be empowered to take responsibility for their health." According to WHO, 1 billion adults worldwide are overweight and at least 300 million are obese. Poor diet and lack of exercise contribute to heart disease, diabetes and cancers which account for 60 per cent of the 56.5 million preventable deaths each year.

Ian "Doc" Shillington N.D.505-772-5889Dr.IanShillington