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Some
wishes for our health's sake
December 25, 03
Suzanne Havala Hobbs
It’s
Christmas — the season of giving and wishes.
I’ve put together my own wish list of changes that I
believe would improve the health of all of us.
• More government support for fruits and vegetables.
Shift subsidies away from the production of foods high in
fats and sugars and give them instead to broccoli and bean
farmers. We should eat less meat, less cheese, and less corn
sweetener, not more. Let’s give incentives to small
farmers and other local growers. Fund school gardens and more
fresh produce in food assistance programs.
• A transparent process for development of dietary guidance
policies. Food industry representatives have no place on committees
drafting government dietary recommendations for the public.
Let’s have a policy of full public disclosure of conflicts
of interest and independent panels of experts without funding
relationships with industry. We need government nutrition
and health messages we can trust to be in the public’s
interest.
• De-toxified school environment. Picture schools a
junk-free zone. Vending machines dispense fresh fruit, water,
and 100 percent fruit juices. Soft drinks go the way of cigarettes
on school campuses. Menus meet or exceed government nutrition
guidelines and respect and celebrate ethnic diversity. Nutrition
is integrated into the school curriculum. And kids have a
say. They have input into menus by sampling new products and
giving feedback. School meals are a model for best eating
practices now and into adulthood.
• No food advertising targeting kids 12 and under. Why?
Because kids younger than that don’t know when someone
is selling to them. They are easily manipulated. Ads that
speak directly to kids aim to maximize the nag factor and
undermine parents’ efforts to guide them to the healthiest
diet possible. It’s wrong to market junk to kids.
• Food labels de-mystified. Labels should list total
calories for the package rather than per serving. Eaters of
chips, ice cream, and cookies need to be able to easily understand
the implications of downing half the container. A combined
goal for trans fats and saturated fats should be given with
a notation that there is actually no safe intake level.
• Environmental policies that protect the food supply.
We live in a time when tuna salad sandwiches can cause neurological
damage in children. We need more controls ñ not less
ñ on emissions from coal-fueled power plants and other
sources of pollution. Whatever we send out into the air, land
and water comes right back to us in our food. We’re
becoming walking reservoirs of mercury, dioxin and other contaminants.
You can weed out foods high on the food chain like meat and
dairy fat, but when the fruits and vegetables become tainted,
there ain’t much left to live on.
• Adoption of a precautionary principle. As the saying
goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The
American way is to wait until there’s a problem before
focusing on the fix. Other countries put more restrictions
on the introduction of new chemicals and bioengineered foods
before letting them go system-wide. And where private interests
and the public good are concerned, they give more weight to
the public’s health than industry profits. There may
be a lesson there.
And my last wish is for greater public awareness of the factors
that affect food and nutrition policies. It’s important
for everyone to recognize that the considerations that go
into government food regulations and dietary recommendations
often favor special interests and take precedence over what’s
best for the public’s health.
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