Correspondence |
The obesity epidemic
Sir,Skidmore and Yarnell's commentary1 on the prospects for preventing the obesity epidemic is rather disappointing, because, despite its nine pages, it virtually ignores what reason and common sense2 clearly suggest to be the most effective tool to combat that worryingly increasing epidemic, namely, a set of strict regulations on food production and its advertising. Food companies are the main responsible for both overfeeding and its unhealthy effects, because they spend enormous amounts of money (‘billions of pounds’1) to promote the consumption of their products, including ‘high calorie processed foods of poor nutritional quality’,2 which, most appropriately, are also called ‘junk food’.
In a timely editorial, the Lancet has recently written that ‘the junk-food industry needs to be forced by legislation to clean up its act’.3 Unfortunately, as has been pointed out, ‘Professional nutritional societies maintain lucrative relations through sponsorships and endorsement with the food industry‘,2 which is so powerful as to influence and shape government policies,4 by means of its political lobbies driven by interest. For example, candidates for the US congress and presidency received more than $12 million between 1989 and 2000 from the sugar industry.2 It is hardly surprising, therefore, that ‘governments may be reluctant to intervene too radically against a powerful food industry’.1 They should realize, however, that firm interventions against it can no longer be deferred.
In view of the millions of deaths caused worldwide by the serious diseases associated with the obesity epidemic,4,5 it is indisputable that this scourge represents a public health crisis.2 As such, it must be faced resolutely, by adopting all the measures that typically characterize public health ethics, which is axiomatically aimed at protecting the common good over individual interests.4,5 The profits of a few industrialists, therefore, must not be privileged at the expense of numberless lives. As has been correctly emphasized, to combat the obesity epidemic that affects severely even children, ‘straightforward, if politically difficult, solutions exist’.2 It is time to adopt them.
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Retired Medical Inspector Italian State Railways Fortaleza Brazil email: baschetti{at}baydenet.com.br
References
1. Skidmore PML, Yarnell JWG. The obesity epidemic: prospects for prevention. Q J Med 2004; 97:817–25.
2. Ebbeling CB, Pawlak DB, Ludwig DS. Childhood obesity: public-health crisis, common sense cure. Lancet 2002; 360:473–82.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
3. Editorial. Thought for food. Lancet 2003; 362:1593.[Medline]
4. Baschetti R. Food fights: common good versus individual interests. CMAJ 2004; 170:1517–18.
5. Baschetti R. Preventing Type 2 diabetes: an evolutionary view. Diabet Med 2004; 21:649–50.[Medline]
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