Posted on 01/22/2004 11:58:11 PM PST by FairOpinion
GENEVA, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Key members of the World Health Organisation (WHO) agreed on Thursday to back a worldwide drive against obesity, but health activists warned that the plan could still be diluted.
The United States, which had expressed some reservations about the WHO's Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, joined other executive board members in voting to send it to the agency's annual assembly in May for final approval.
"We are very much in favour of this resolution (to send it to the assembly)," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told journalists after the meeting.
But while supporting the need for a global campaign against poor diets and lack of exercise, which the WHO blames for soaring rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, the United States wants more work done on some details.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) believe Washington is bowing to pressure from its powerful food industry to soften the plan, weaken its call to governments to use weapons such as taxation and advertising restrictions to change eating habits, and leave everything up to individual choice.
At the insistence of Washington and some allies, including small sugar-producing states, the plan -- hammered out over months of discussions with states, corporations and NGOs -- will be open to further revision until the end of February.
The WHO will then draw up a final version to go to the annual assembly, attended by ministers and representatives from the U.N. body's 192 member states.
"The strategy has come under attack by food corporations, industry associations and the U.S. government. U.S. officials have even denied any connection between unhealthy foods and obesity," said Infact, a U.S.-based NGO in a statement.
The draft plan warns that poor diets and lack of exercise are the leading causes of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers. These account for nearly 60 percent of 56.5 million deaths a year deemed preventable.
It recommends lower intake of sugar, sodium and artery-clogging trans-fatty acids and suggests governments set taxation and subsidy policies to promote healthy eating habits.
But the U.S. and others, including South Korea, Russia, India and sugar-producers Mauritius and Grenada, have disputed some of the scientific assumptions behind the recommendations.
"Wouldn't it be smarter to have the best science-based recommendations instead of having the food industry or any other industry or special interest group be able to attack the specifics because it is poor science?" said Thompson.
Washington has disputed experts' assertions that heavy marketing of high-calorie foods and advertising junk food on children's television contributes to obesity.
Thompson acknowledged that the United States itself faced a huge problem, with some 16-20 percent of U.S. children overweight and 62-65 percent of adults, he said.
According to the World Heart Federation, 1.1 billion adults and 22 million children under age five are obese, worldwide.
The government should not be determining what individuals should or shouldn't eat -- and it most definitely shouldn't be the UN.
See earlier article:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1062611/posts
Where the head of US delegation denounced the US attempt:
"William Steiger, head of the US delegation, called the plan a "good first step", but said it put too much of the burden for diet reform on states and not enough on individuals.
"Government-imposed solutions are not always appropriate," he said. "People need to be empowered to take responsibility for their health."
"Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) believe Washington is bowing to pressure from its powerful food industry to soften the plan, weaken its call to governments to use weapons such as taxation and advertising restrictions to change eating habits, and leave everything up to individual choice. "
And from the earlier article, to which I gave a link in my post 1:
"It recommends lower intake of sugar, sodium and artery-clogging trans-fatty acids and suggests governments set taxation and subsidy policies to promote healthy eating habits. "
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OK, the UN wouldn't tax "directly", but it's virtually the same thing, when governments have to obey the UN and tax according to UN instructions.
When you invent a bureaucracy like that, it will always try to expand, fill any voids of power, and put its thumbprints all over everything. That's just human nature.
Of course, if you're a doctrinaire 1940's Fabian socialist and cryptocommunist who longs for a world government that would lord it over all national governments and plow private interests and freedoms into the ground worldwide, then you'd invent something like the U.N., wouldn't you, knowing what it would likely become and what it would inevitably try to do?
Call this Alger Hiss's revenge.
The sad thing is, you wouldn't get skinny anyway, more likely your belly will expand due to the effects of edema.
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