Campaigners want anti-smoking regulation now put on foods
The Unhived Mind
19 May 2014 Last updated at 02:22
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27446958
Food should be regulated like tobacco, say campaigners
By Pippa Stephens
The food industry should be regulated like the tobacco industry as obesity poses a greater global health risk than cigarettes, say international groups.
Consumers International and the World Obesity Federation are calling for the adoption of more stringent rules.
These could include pictures on food packaging of damage caused by obesity, similar to those on cigarette packets.
The Food and Drink Federation said the food industry was working to make healthy options for consumers.
‘Avoid’ tobacco situation
The two organisations – CI and WOF – said governments around the world should impose compulsory rules for the food and drink industry.
They said global deaths due to obesity and being overweight rose from 2.6 million in 2005 to 3.4 million in 2010.
The new rules could include reducing the levels of salt, saturated fat and sugar in food, improving food served in hospitals and schools, imposing stricter advertising controls, and educating the public about healthy eating.
Artificial trans-fats should be removed from all food and drink products within five years, said the recommendations.
Advertising to children, during television programmes such as the X-Factor, must be restricted, said the organisations.
Governments could review food prices, introduce taxes, change licensing controls and start new research to make this happen, the report said.
Luke Upchurch at Consumers International said they were asking for the “same level of global treaty” as the tobacco industry faced.
He said stricter advertising controls could include pictures on food packaging of the damage obesity can cause, similar to the images of smoking-related disease on cigarette boxes.
He said: “We want to avoid a situation like the 1960s, where the tobacco industry were saying there is nothing wrong with cigarettes, they are good for our health, and 30 or 40 years later millions have died.
“If we don’t take action now, we are going to have the same intransigence and foot-dragging in the food industry.”
He said the new rules would be at the “highest level” of global agreement, meaning governments would be “legally required” to implement them, instead of being able to opt out, which he said was the situation at the moment.
Mr Upchurch said he was confident about Brazil and Norway’s support and that the UK government had “really good ideas”.
Dr Ian Campbell, clinician and founder of the UK’s National Obesity Forum, said: “This is very interesting and their recommendations are largely sensible and practical.”
He said only when governments “accepted their responsibilities” and put consumers before producers “will we see real change”.
Dr Campbell added: “One significant difference between tobacco regulation and food regulation is that we need food to survive; we don’t need tobacco.
“The inescapable fact is obesity is killing on a massive scale and only action from governments to tackle head-on the fundamental causes of obesity will lead to any meaningful decreases.”
Food industry’s drive
Dr Tim Lobstein at the World Obesity Federation said: “If obesity was an infectious disease, we would have seen billions of dollars being invested in bringing it under control.
“But because obesity is largely caused by the overconsumption of fatty and sugary foods, we have seen policy-makers unwilling to take on the corporate interests who promote these foods.”
He said governments needed to take “collective action”.
Terry Jones, director of communications at the Food and Drink Federation, said UK food and drink manufacturers were “already” supporting improvements to public health through many of the measures outlined in the recommendations.
He said: “The industry’s participation in the UK government’s public health responsibility deal sees manufacturers working in partnership with government, health organisations, NGOs and other stakeholders.”
My Jones said it was acting to reduce salt, saturated fat and calories in products, “provide clear nutritional labelling and to promote healthier diets and more physical activity”.
theunhivedmind says:
I’ve told you all for a long time that eventually the same attacks on smoking would end up on foods and eventually foods you actually need to survive. First of all they will use the obvious foods hindering health and thus get the herds acceptance and then once their foot is in the door they will get down to nefarious business. Watch as they start to increase the prices of meats and saturated fats so you can no longer afford them and all at the same time they will be promoting GMO and poisonous compounds which they’ll claim are real foods.
The goal is to turn you all into sick vegans by demonizing meat, saturated fats and making you feel guilty for hurting mother earth in their new pagan environment religion. They will not tell you about when you have sugary foods that these eventually get converted in the body into saturated fats, they can’t tell you this otherwise their lies go out the window. Many of us are all different requiring different metabolic typing needs. Some of us can live well as a vegan whilst the majority cannot, some of us need red meat to be healthy and others do not. To put us all in one bracket is genocide.
This all fits in well with the Club of Rome’s population reduction agenda. Go and study the New Venice (British Empire) handler of Dennis Kucinich and it is his wife Elizabeth Kucinich who’s a pirate within The Worshipful Company of Coopers. It is this Elizabeth Kucinich who is behind the big push to turn you away from meats. Now guess who is the director of policy at the Center for Food Safety? Elizabeth Kucinich!
-= The Unhived Mind