Stop being afraid of the food industry
Submitted by Maria
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
As a nutritionist who works mainly with low-income children and their parents, I see the problem of childhood obesity on a daily basis. The problem is obviously multi-factorial, so the solution needs to address the multitude of factors involved. I think one of the biggest problems in this country has been the unwillingness to deal with the food industry head-on. As we saw with tobacco, the industry has to be forced to acknowledge its responsibility before real solutions can be implemented. Of course, the food industry is enormous, and employs powerful lobbyists in Washington, so the prospect of any policy restrictions on the food industry seem to be slim to none at this time. However, I believe it is time to stop letting big corporations get away with enticing children to consume their high-calorie, high-fat and high-sugar products with billions of dollars in advertising, and then using the "personal responsibility" excuse to avoid all corporate responsibilities in this matter. Obesity and overweight are shaping up to be the most important public health problem for our society, and the time to act should be now. Our children are suffering from a number of conditions that were only observed in adults decades ago. I regularly see children as young as 5 years old with high cholesterol, high triglycerides and elevated liver enzymes (indicating accumulation of fat in the liver). I have personally seen children as young as 12 already diagnosed with type 2 diabetes... What are we doing to our children? Why can't we be more courageous in taking the bull by the horns and solving this problem in an efficient way? So this is what I propose: 1) Immediately ban all advertising of high-fat, high-sugar, high-sodium, low-fiber and highly processed foods and beverages to children of all ages. 2) Enact a tax on the above mentioned items to fund well-designed public health media campaigns and information campaigns, targeted to children of all age groups and their parents, to promote the intake of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, as well as physical activity, and to increase awareness of the dangers of high-fat, high-sugar and highly processed foods. 3) Speed the implementation of the recently passed federal law regarding school lunches. 4) Expand and subsidize research on the addictive quality of the above mentioned foods in order to establish scientific evidence and rationale for policy changes regarding food and advertisement issues. 5) Stop government subsidies of crops that contribute to the obesity problem, and implement a system of subsidies for highly nutritious fruits and vegetables. 6) Make physical education (P.E.) mandatory in all grade levels. By implementing these and other possible solutions that tackle the problem directly, that is, that confront the source of the problem which is the food we eat, we may finally begin to see solutions that actually work. As long as we continue to bow down to the food industry and their lobbyists, obesity will continue to be a threat to our health and the future wellbeing of our children.
http://hive.slate.com/hive/time-to-trim/stop-being-afraid-of-the-food-industry
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