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The Fat of the Land
One of the hit films at
Sundance this year was a documentary called "Super Size Me,"
about a healthy man — the film's director — who decided to see what
would happen if he ate nothing but super-sized McDonald's food for 30
days. His weight ballooned, his cholesterol rose, and his liver functions
began to erode — warning signs of a number of chronic diseases that,
like obesity itself, have reached epidemic proportions in this country. According to the World
Health Organization, those diseases, including cardiovascular disease,
Type 2 diabetes and certain cancers, are now part of a major shift in the
cause of death around the world. Old-fashioned communicable diseases, like
malaria, are being eclipsed by noncommunicable diseases caused by a
dramatic change in diet. Even poor countries plagued by malnutrition are
at risk for what the W.H.O. calls a malnutrition "of excess."
There are 300 million obese adults in the world, some 750 million more who
are overweight and 22 million overweight or obese children under the age
of 5. In hopes of getting ahead
of the problem, the W.H.O. has drafted a "global strategy on diet,
physical activity and health." Meant to be culturally and regionally
responsive, the strategy calls for more physical activity, a reduction in
sugars, fats and salt and an increase in fresh fruit, whole grains,
legumes and nuts. In other words, exactly what your doctor would recommend
if you asked how to lose weight and improve your health. The plan has
provoked an outcry from the American food industry — especially the
Sugar Association — and that, predictably, has led the Bush
administration to request changes. William Steiger, a special assistant in
the Department of Health and Human Services, sent a 30-page critique to
W.H.O. last month, and his boss, Secretary Tommy Thompson, and members of
the Grocery Manufacturers Association flew to The administration and the
sugar industry, which has a long history of generous giving to both
political parties, seem particularly disturbed at W.H.O.'s proposals that
countries be urged to limit advertising, especially ads directed at
children, encouraging unhealthy diets and that schools should limit
"availability of products high in salt, sugar and fats." Their
counterarguments — that no one has proved that advertising causes
obesity, and that W.H.O. does not place enough emphasis on personal
responsibility — seem particularly unrealistic for a program targeted in
part at children. The administration should be throwing its weight behind the anti-obesity strategy instead of fighting it. Its current stance has nothing to do with health and everything to do with the political power of Big Food — and especially Big Sugar. Copyright © 2002
Global Action on Aging |
