Scientists keep up call for better diet
food in order to improve public health has not gone away, despite
the recently unveiled strategy proposed by the World Health
Organisation to combat diet-related disease.
In an article in tomorrow's British Medical Journal (volume 328, pp 1558-60), researchers argue that global strategies similar to those used against the tobacco industry are needed to tackle the obesity epidemic.
The International Obesity TaskForce has forecast that adult obesity rates could rise to almost 50 per cent in little over 20 years in some countries. Obesity rates rose in the UK from 6-8 per cent in 1980 to 21-23.5 per cent in 2001. Among UK children overweight and obesity rates doubled to more than 20 per cent in less than 15 years, while in the US, 25 per cent of all white children overweight and 33 per cent of African American and Hispanic children were overweight in 2001.
But Mickey Chopra of the School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape South Africa, and Ian Darnton-Hill, based at Columbia University, New York, write that diets across the globe are being shaped by a concentrated and global food industry that is fiercely resisting public health attempts to promote healthy eating.
The food industry tactics are similar to those used by the tobacco industry - supplying misinformation, use of supposedly conflicting evidence, and hiding negative data, they claim.
They also attack 'the half true contention' that there is no such thing as an unhealthy food, only unhealthy diets. The authors also accuse the industry of blaming a reduction in physical activity rather than diet for the rise inobesity and of using a smoke screen of apparently conflicting scientific data about sugars and different types of fat.
"Although scientific knowledge is still incomplete, it is less divided than the industry would have the public believe," say the authors.
Advocates for tobacco control have used a variety of tactics in their campaign that could have relevance for the fight against unhealthy diets, suggest the authors.
"It will be much more difficult to establish internationally binding instruments or conventions like those achieved in tobacco control. Nevertheless, their importance in bringing about changes in national behaviour should not be under-rated," they say.
Potential international standards might cover issues such as marketing restrictions for unhealthy food products, restrictions on the advertising and availability of unhealthy products in schools, or potential price or tax measures to reduce the demand for unhealthy products.
" they conclude.
