Voedingsindustrie verantwoordelijk voor veel ziektes*
Uit een internationale analyse over voeding en dranken blijkt dat zelfregulering en convenanten in strijd tegen ongezonde levensstijl niet werken, iets wat al lang gedacht werd doch nu door onderzoek bevestigd wordt. Er is daarentegen een toename van de verkoop van ongezonde voeding en dranken en de voedingsindustrie ondermijnt programma's die bedoelt zijn om een gezonde levensstijl te bevorderen. Uit documenten blijkt dat de voedingsindustrie de wetgeving vorm geeft en regulering tegengaat door het beïnvloeden van gezondheidsdeskundigen, gezondheidsorganisaties, onderzoeksresultaten, overheidsinstellingen en politici. Het gevolg is dat voeding zoals frisdranken, alcohol en bewerkte kant en klare voeding de belangrijkste bron zijn van alle niet overdraagbare ziektes wereldwijd. Niet overdraagbare ziektes zijn o.a. diabetes, kanker, hart- en vaatziektes, longziektes, osteoporose enz.. Als gevolg van de agressieve manier van verkopen en marketing door de voedingsindustrie veroorzaken deze niet overdraagbare ziektes nu al 65% van alle doden wereldwijd. Overheden moeten volgens de onderzoekers kiezen voor wettelijke regels en marktinterventies om de industrie te dwingen hun verantwoording te nemen om zo de burgers te behoeden voor de niet overdraagbare ziektes.
Harmful effects of ultra-processed food and drink industries should be regulated
An international analysis of food, drink, and alcohol industry involvement in NCD policies shows that despite the common reliance on industry self-regulation and public-private partnerships to improve public health, there is no evidence to support either their effectiveness or safety. On the contrary, the study, led by Professor Rob Moodie from the University of Melbourne in Australia, found startling evidence that these "unhealthy commodity" industries use similar strategies to the tobacco industry to undermine public health policies and programmes.
The paper makes a series of hard-hitting and evidence-based recommendations for governments, public health professionals, and society on the involvement of these industries, starting with the proposal that they should have no role in the formation of national or international policy on NCDs.
The researchers were unable to find any health benefit to industry involvement in voluntary regulation or public-private partnerships, which has long been suspected, but not confirmed by this kind of research until now.
Industry documents reveal how these industries shape public-health legislation and avoid regulation. This is done through actions such as "building financial and institutional relations" with health professionals, non-governmental organisations, and national and international health agencies; distorting research findings; and lobbying politicians to oppose health care reform.
According to the authors, "regulation, or the threat of regulation, is the only way to change these transnational corporations; therefore the audience for public health is government and not industry."
Public regulation would be the most effective way to change behaviour, say the authors. This approach focuses on directly pressuring industry by raising awareness of their shady practices and maintaining active public pressure—an approach that has worked in changing the behaviour of the tobacco industry.
Through the sale and aggressive marketing of tobacco, alcohol, and ultra-processed food and drink, multinational corporations are now major drivers of the world's growing epidemics of NCDs.
Worryingly, say the authors, this may only be the tip of the iceberg: "Saturation of markets in high-income countries has caused the industries to rapidly penetrate emerging global markets, as the tobacco industry has done. Almost all growth in the foreseeable future in profits and sales of these unhealthy commodities will be in low-income and middle-income countries [where consumption is currently low]."
The study concludes that the failure of industry to regulate itself and the lack of evidence that partnerships with industry can deliver health benefits, should be a renewed wake-up call to governments, the public health community, and civil society to step in and regulate the harmful activities of these industries, rather than collaborate with
them.
Soft drink, alcohol and processed food multinationals are the major drivers of the global epidemic in non-communicable diseases, say international health experts.
Writing in today's Lancet,the group of public health researchers, led by Professor Rob Moodie at the University of Melbourne, say these industries are now targeting developing nations and must be regulated in the interests of global public health.
However they warn these companies are adopting tactics successfully used by the tobacco industry to avoid government regulation and undermine public health programs.
"These industries are taking governments for a ride by saying: 'We are part of the solution' and installing codes they know will have no effect," says Moodie.
The landmark paper draws upon public health research as well as market data.
It shows diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes, which have long been major causes of death in developed countries, are now also reaching epidemic levels in the developing world.
According to recent estimates, 34.5 million people died from non-communicable diseases in 2010, 65 per cent of the 52.8 million deaths worldwide that year. By 2030, non-communicable diseases are expected to claim more than 50 million lives every year.
Developing world targeted
Moodie says market saturation in the developed world has led the alcohol, drinks and processed food industries - what they term "unhealthy commodity industries" - to target developing nations.
With the exception of China, the researchers say, there is a high degree of penetration into the food systems of low-income and middle-income countries already similar to that in the US.
"For example, Kraft Foods, the main seller of packaged food in the US, is responsible for about 6.8 per cent of all sales in the USA, and Nestlé already has 8.4 per cent of all packaged food sales in Brazil," they write.
Moodie says like the tobacco industry, the alcohol, drink and processed food industries are sponsoring scientists and creating quasi-independent organisations to publish biased and incomplete reports that support their industries.
"Studies funded by food and drinks companies are four to eight times more likely to make conclusions favourable to the companies than those that were not sponsored by food or drinks companies," says Moodie.
Attracting the young
Like the tobacco industry, these conglomerates also attempt to develop customers as young as possible using social media and early-childhood health promotion schemes, and lobby politicians to oppose health care reform and regulation.
Importantly, Moodie says many of the key players at board and executive level in the tobacco industry have moved across to the alcohol, food and processed food companies. The industries also use the same public relations firms to lobby worldwide and design marketing campaigns.
Moodie says governments have long accepted these industries have a role in developing health promotion campaigns and informing health policies.
Yet, he says, their study shows no health benefit from industry involvement in voluntary regulation or public-private partnerships.
"These companies shouldn't be around the table when formulating national and international policy," says Moodie. "There is a fundamental conflict - their legitimate role is to make profit, our role is to protect health."
Moodie says the multinationals, like the tobacco companies, encourage public opposition to government regulation by emphasising individual choice and the intrusion of the "nanny state" into our lives.
Two-part solution
"Individual responsibility is absolutely part of the deal, but we also need to think about societal responsibility - the two go together," says Moodie.
Moodie says the paper's call to use the introduction of "legislation, regulation, taxation, pricing, ban, and restriction of advertising and sponsorship" to reduce death and disability from non-communicable diseases is not a naïve call.
"Some governments - led by Bloomberg in New York - are already doing this."
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg most recently banned the sale of sugared beverages larger than 16 ounces (473 millilitres) in sports stadiums, movie theatres and restaurants. He has previously banned trans fats from restaurant foods and required chain restaurants to post calories counts on menus.
Moodie says it took 40 years from discovering tobacco's health impacts to regulating against it.
The lesson from that fight, adds Moodie, is that only government regulation, or the threat of it, will force the food, alcohol and drink multinationals to produce healthier products.
"It's a long, slow process but we're not going away," he says. (Maart 2013)
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