US government rejects WHO's attempts to improve diet
US government rejects WHO's attempts to improve diet
Owen Dyer
London
The
US government has rejected a link between junk food and obesity in a
confidential letter to the director general of the World Health
Organization, Dr Lee Jong-wook.
The letter, from William Steiger,
special assistant at the Department of Health and Human Services, has
been leaked and is available on the internet. It is the United States's
official response to an April 2003 report by WHO and the UN Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) which argued that added sugar should
comprise no more than 10% of a healthy diet and that governments should
take steps to limit children's exposure to the advertising of junk food.
When
the report, Diet, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases,
was released last year ( BMJ 2003;326: 515), American food
manufacturers' groups began lobbying to prevent their government from
accepting its proposals. The Sugar Association wrote to Gro Harlem
Brundtland, then director general of WHO, threatening to "exercise
every avenue available to expose the dubious nature" of the report.
Congressmen recruited by the food industry urged the secretary of
health, Tommy Thompson, to cut off the $406m (£226m; 334m) annual US
contribution to WHO ( BMJ 2003;326: 948)
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