Unhealthy fast-food trends spreading to poor countries, new United Nations report shows
The International Digestive Cancer Alliance (IDCA) has come out strongly in support of a new UN report due for publication April 2003 that shows a global surge of diet-related diseases, a trend the World Health Organization (WHO) warns could be linked to excessive consumption of snacks, processed foods and soft drinks. The report examines the world's growing overindulgence in processed dietary fats, salt and refined sugars -- and lays out strict recommendations for fighting it.
"We're in complete agreement with the report", says IDCA co-chairman Sidney Winawer, Professor of Medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. "We estimate that dietary factors either cause 30% of common cancers, or at least contribute to their initiation." The IDCA has designated March, 2003, as 'World Digestive Cancer Awareness Month' (see next story).
"The average western diet is too high in simple carbohydrates, meat and fats", says Prof. Meinhard Classen, who shares IDCA chairmanship with Prof. Winawer and serves as OMGE Past-President. Classen, who like Winawer is a keen skier and fresh-air enthusiast, shares WHO's concerns over malnutrition's link to chronic disease. Along with plenty of fruits, vegetables and physical exercise, Prof. Classen recommends supplementation with calcium and a multivitamin, the former especially for women, plus a low-dose aspirin for colon protection in select high-risk groups."
'Seismic shift'
Commissioned by the WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the new UN study says that more and more people in the developing world are suffering from chronic ailments like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and cancer, a phenomenon the WHO calls a "seismic shift from a few decades ago, when chronic disease was associated with the rich, developed world."
Increased urbanization – as rural people abandon their land and move towards the cities -- plays a large part in this change, according to the report. The migrants suddenly must switch to diets high in saturated fat and refined carbohydrates, and adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. This trend is having "a drastic effect on the health of the urban poor", says the WHO.
Food industry reacts
The WHO/FAO report condemns over-reliance on energy-rich saturated fats and trans fatty acids (usually hydrogenated vegetable oils) and calls for a daily regimen of at least 400 grams of fresh fruit and vegetables plus one hour of exercise. It also advocates that free sugar (defined as sugars added by manufacturers to processed foods, added by cooks and consumers or occurring in honeys, syrups and fruit preserves) should represent no more than 10 per cent of total calories consumed per day, an unusually strict limitation.
The tough line on sugar has already raised eyebrows in the food industry. The National Soft Drink Association of the USA said this conflicted with a recent recommendation from the US National Academy of Sciences. However, the international expert group that authored the WHO/FAO paper calls it "the best currently available scientific evidence on the relationship of diet, nutrition and physical activity to chronic diseases."
Book spotlights 'food war'
Coinciding with the WHO/FAO report, a new book called the "Atlas of Food – Who Eats What, Where and Why", claims the world's food policies are not meeting health and environmental needs and urgently need to change. Dr. Erik Millstone, Reader in Science Policy at Sussex University, United Kingdom, and co-editor of the Atlas of Food, explains: "Our intention is to give a snapshot of some of the powerful forces that politicians must grapple with if they are to deliver a food supply system that doesn't contribute to ill health and environmental damage even while feeding people".
The Atlas of Food highlights 40 key global trends characterizing the world of food today. These include the coexistence in some countries of both hunger and over-eating as well as massive spending on advertising foods and soft drinks of dubious value to health.
"Political attention is on the Iraq conflict, but don't let's forget there's a food war going on, too," said Prof. Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University, London and co-editor of the Atlas of Food. "The challenge is clear. We have to ensure good quality food production that meets both human and ecological health. The watchword is quality, not just quantity. The WHO report has laid down a challenge that governments, the food industry and we consumers all must rise to."
References:
Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases: Report of a Joint WHO/FAO expert consultation, Geneva, 28 January - 1 February 2002; download full text in printable .pdf format here.
The report will be formally published in April, 2003, as a WHO/FAO technical report, together with an evaluation by the two organizations and proposed actions to implement the recommendations.
"The Atlas of Food", 128 pages, priced at £11.99, is available from Earthscan, 120 Pentonville Road, London N1 9JN, www.earthscan.co.uk
Indulge in more fruits, veggies and sports, says Classen
Sidney Winawer: 'WHO is right to link diet and GI cancer'
