Here is an excerpt from an article from last weeks New Scientist Magazine, on obesity, which sums up and backs up a few of the arguements made in this thread...
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Obesity
"Yes" is the short answer to the biggest question on the table: are we eating ourselves to death? There is a growing consensus that people in industrialised nations are overdosing on sugars, fats and salt, leading inevitably to obesity, cardiovascular disease and premature death. What's more, people in many developing countries are following suit.
In Europe over the past 30 years, average daily energy intake has risen by about 300 kilocalories to 3400 kcal, said Robert Madelin, the European Commission's director-general for health and consumer protection. This may not seem much - about two large glasses of regular Coke - but the Micawber-like conclusion is that it is bringing us misery. Already, 10 per cent of Europe's health costs go on obesity.
A mass of evidence shows the dangers we face by eating too much and exercising too little, said Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, London. Yet while ministers call on people to listen to health education, other policies point the opposite way: the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), for example, pays farmers to churn out fats. "This is a nonsense," said Lang.
Madelin argued that sustained public education on the benefits of healthy eating could make a difference. The food industry would certainly sign up to such a programme, said Martin Paterson of the UK industry body the Food and Drink Federation.
That's all well and good - except the public don't seem to take any notice, said Richard Moody of Manchester Metropolitan University. He has found that even when people accept advice on what they should eat, they don't act on it. "Palatability, convenience and price tend to overwhelm healthy eating decisions," he argued.
For Lang, too much effort has gone on changing public behaviour and not enough on encouraging change within the food industry. Blaming companies for the rising tide of food-related disease is unfair, he said. Since the second world war, the food industry has been told to raise output and cut prices. The real fault lies in the underlying policy.
An entirely new direction is now needed, but what will it be? One route is towards technical fixes. Identify the genes that contribute to diet-related diseases, then give people diets that help them avoid those diseases. This field, called nutrigenomics, is already being heavily funded by industry.
Lang's preferred route is for human well-being to be seen as part of the health of the global ecosystem. "Human and environmental health must be intrinsic to the food system," he said.
But how to encourage industry to move forward? One suggestion is a tax on fat, but Lang said this is a non-starter because fat is difficult to track within foodstuffs. He has a better idea. "McDonalds and Coca-Cola each spend $1.7 billion on advertising every year," he said. So put a tax on advertising.
Madelin also threw down the gauntlet to food companies. He challenged them to allocate hard cash and staff time to encouraging people to eat more healthily. They should join in the work on setting benchmarks for healthy eating, and allow their own performance to be monitored.
Outside the US, litigation against food companies probably won't work. Nevertheless, the global nature of US food companies has meant that court cases against them at home have echoed around the world.
Perhaps the most powerful new force for change has emerged from the finance industry. Two studies last year rated food manufacturers by the unhealthiness of their products. Companies with lots of unhealthy products were rated very low. Pressure from the mainstream stock markets makes companies nervous, said Lang, and this could have a major impact.
- From the article "Hungry for change" (New Scientist vol 183 issue 2456 - 17 July 2004, page 42)
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This quote from later on in the article is also quite poignant as well - "Every time we buy food , our choices shape farms and nature and communities somewhere in the world. It's the most political decision we make and we make it every day."
Smiley
