US Sugar Barons 'Block Global War on Obesity'
Jo Revill and Paul Harris
Leading scientists accused the Bush administration
last night of putting the interests of powerful American sugar barons
ahead of the global fight against obesity.
Professor Kaare Norum, leader of the World Health Organisation's
fight to prevent millions developing diet-related diseases, has sparked
an international war of words with a highly critical letter to US Health
Secretary Tommy Thompson. In it he tells of his grave concern over American
opposition to the WHO's blueprint to combat obesity. He accuses the US
of making the health of millions of young Americans 'a hostage to fortune'
because it has failed to take action over the fat epidemic as a result
of its business interests, particularly the sugar lobby. Since 1990, successive
US governments have blocked WHO calls for action, claims Norum, professor
of medicine at Oslo University.
"Obesity rates have risen so that now one in
three Americans bears the burden of the very high health risks associated
with this condition, with the poorest and most vulnerable worst affected,"
he says. "Obesity rates among American children have risen by
50 per cent."
Norum is the most senior scientist involved in an attempt
to formulate a worldwide policy to fight heart disease and diabetes resulting
from a junk food diet. An estimated 60 per cent of disease worldwide is
now due to cardiovascular illness, which causes 47 per cent of deaths.
The letter from Norum will put Bush under intense pressure
at home to show that he is serious about tackling the epidemic. More than
half of all Americans are overweight, and in some states, including Bush's
Texas, nearly one-third of the population is classified obese.
The President insists fighting fat is a matter for
the individual, not the state. But today The Observer reveals how he and
fellow senators have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding
from 'Big Sugar'. One of his main fundraisers is sugar baron Jose 'Pepe'
Fanjul, head of Florida Crystals, who has raised at least $100,000 for
November's presidential re-election campaign.
Norum's letter is an angry response to the Americans'
decision to submit a 30-page report, criticising the WHO strategy for
its lack of sound scientific evidence. It will be discussed at a key meeting
of its executive board in Geneva on Tuesday.
The Bush administration, which receives millions in
funding from the sugar industry, argues there is little robust evidence
to show that drinking sugary drinks or eating too much sugar is a direct
cause of obesity. It particularly opposes a recommendation that just 10
per cent of people's energy intake should come from added sugar. The US
has a 25 per cent guideline.
Thompson's representative at Tuesday's meeting will
be Bill Steiger, godson of George Bush Sr. He will argue there is no evidence
that selling junk food to children increases overweight.
Another leading obesity expert supported Norum, describing America's position
as a scandal.
Professor Philip James, head of the International Obesity
Task Force, a thinktank for experts worldwide said: "People are
far more tuned into what is now a much bigger obesity crisis and are more
aware of some of the dangers such as diabetes. When they begin to see
children developing these severe health problems, it brings home to people
that this is not some vague risk in the future - it is happening here
and now."
Thompson is also due to speak at the World Economic
Forum in Davos next week, where he is expected to have a private meeting
with Douglas Daft, president of The Coca-Cola Company, one of the major
users of American cane sugar and sweeteners.
In an Observer interview today, Britain's Culture Secretary
Tessa Jowell urges people who take little or no exercise to start hobbies
like DIY and gardening to get active, saying that she wants people to
take responsibility for their fitness.
In the UK, nearly 16 per cent of teenagers were found
to be obese in 2000 - three times the number reported in 1990.
The Observer, 18th January 2004
