H/t reader squodgy:
“UK Government is now as corrupt and in the pockets of GlobalCorps as the American Government, who set the standard.”
– Is the food industry bankrupting our NHS?:
In a BBC’s Inside Out diabetes (type 2) special, the programme highlighted that 4.5 million people in the UK are living with the disease, and this figure is likely to rise by 263,000 by 2035. Nick Hex, a health economist, says treating the disease currently costs the health service £10 billion a year, or 10% of the NHS budget, which is estimated to spiral to 17%. This might be enough to bankrupt the NHS. Professor Anthony Barnett from the University of Birmingham has accused the food industry of not taking the problem of sugar consumption and type 2 diabetes seriously and has urged Government to legislate to halt the rise in the chronic disease to stop it busting our health service.
Will the government be strong enough to act against the food giants who want to protect their profits? Food companies use every means at their disposal (legal, regulatory, and societal) to create and protect an environment that is conducive to selling their products in a competitive marketplace. They lobby parliaments worldwide including British and European for laws and regulations that are favourable to sales. In Europe, the food industry spent a staggering £1 billion successfully lobbying the European parliament to reject a traffic light food labelling scheme, as they were worried that a red light would cause a dip in sales.
The World Health Organization have issued a report urging governments to consider taxing sugary drinks. The report found that fiscal policies that lead to a 20% increase in the retail price of sugary drinks would result in proportional reductions of such products. The report defines sugar drinks as products that contain added sugar, corn or fruit juice concentrates and include carbonates, fruit drinks, sports drinks, energy and vitamin water drinks, sweetened iced tea and lemonade. It likened taxing sugary drinks to reduce consumption to that of taxing tobacco. The WHO removed all sugary drinks from its Geneva headquarters to set an example. However, the pressure on government from food companies to hide the facts is already apparent.
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