Obesity, malnutrition and climate change

LONDON (Reuters) – Obesity, malnutrition and climate change are the three manifestations of a unique threat to humanity that must be tackled at the global level, requiring scientists to "clean up" the world. they impose strict rules on multinational food groups, as in the tobacco sector, scientists said Monday.

These three scourges have "common drivers": "the interests of big business, the shortening of politicians and the lack of resources of civil society, the solutions must therefore also be shared," according to scientists.

The British medical journal The Lancet has published an expert report from the University of Auckland (New Zealand), George Washington (USA) and the World Obesity Federation.

This report follows a first study on the relationship between nutrition and the environment published by The Lancet on January 17, 2007. The first report halved global consumption of red meat and sugar and doubled the consumption of vegetables, fruits and nuts. 43 experts from 14 countries agreed with these conclusions.

"Over the past 20 years, obesity, nutrition and climate change have been treated separately, and the slowness of the policy response is unacceptable," he said.

"The diet is not only responsible for the problems of obesity and undernourishment, it is also causing 25 to 30% of greenhouse gas emissions," say the experts, attracting attention to the role of breeding.

Other links to be mentioned include "vehicle-based transportation that limits physical movement and generates 14 to 25 percent of greenhouse gases".

"The food production system relying on multinational companies in the beverage and food sectors, trade profitability targets, agricultural policies, transport networks and urban growth are all circles of interest. a chain that suffocates people and the planet. "

Experts predicted that "climate change is exacerbating undernutrition and obesity". Extreme weather events, such as drought, could deprive hundreds of people of food and increase prices of vegetables and fruits, which would increase the consumption of industrial foods.

"These links must be recognized," said Corina Hawkes, co-author of the report, calling for global solutions.

Such solutions require the development of public health policies (recommendations on healthy food systems and exercise campaigns), as well as fiscal and financial policies to finance more sustainable production patterns, encourage choice of public transport and impose taxes to reduce consumption of red meat.

Restrictions should also be imposed on multinational enterprises in the food sector, such as in the tobacco sector.

The authors called for the adoption of a framework convention on food systems, inspired by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, adopted in 2003 with the aim of reducing consumption. tobacco, fight against industry pressure groups and reduce their impact on policies.

"Food is very different from tobacco, it is essential to life, but it is not the case of foods that are harmful to health," said one of the authors of the report, William Dietz. "The commonalities between tobacco and unhealthy foods are the damage to the consumer and the benefits that it provides to the plant." He said.

According to the World Health Organization, 1.9 billion adults are overweight, of whom 650 million are obese. They face an increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, while 462 million adults are affected.