US sugar barons 'block global war on obesity'

Jo Revill and Paul Harris in New York
Sunday January 18, 2004
The Observer

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.