OMA Wants 'Tobacco Style' Campaign Against Fatty Foods

10/24/2012

Graphic warning labels may not just be on cigarette packs anymore.

The Ontario Medical Association has announced an aggressive plan to combat obesity in Ontario, a plan that closely mirrors current efforts against smoking.

Ontario doctors say the situation is dire, noting a recent re-analysis of Canadian data showed that 31.5% of children and teens, virtually one in three, are overweight or obese. That's up from 14% to 18% in the 1980s.

The campaign calls for graphic warnings, like the ones tobacco companies must print on cigarette packages, on high-calorie, low-nutritional value foods such as sugar-sweetened soft drinks, french fries and even fruit juices.

The health effects of obesity range from diabetes to certain types of cancer to heart disease. The doctors estimate obesity costs the province's health care system $2.2 to $2.5 billion annually. They also cited a study saying North American children of this generation could be the first ever to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

"We are raising a generation of children that will suffer from devastating and wholly preventable diseases, overwhelm the health system, and die prematurely. We need immediate and strong legal action to address what Ontario's doctors are now seeing in the diabetes clinics and the stroke centers, and on the operating table: a full-scale public health crisis," said Doctor Doug Weir, President Ontario Medical Association.

The doctors have outlined aggressive new measures to help prevent thousands of premature deaths associated with obesity, including increasing taxes on junk food:

?- Increasing taxes on junk food and decreasing taxes on healthy foods;
?- Restricting marketing of fatty and sugary foods to children;
?- Placement of graphic warning labels on pop and other high calorie foods with little to no nutritional value;
- Retail displays of high-sugar, high-fat foods to have information prominently placed advising consumer of the health risks; and
?- Restricting the availability of sugary, low-nutritional value foods in sports and other recreational facilities that are frequented by young people.

"The time for gentle admonitions has come and gone. We need to fight this problem with proven tools like tax incentives and graphic warnings. There is an enormous body of evidence that these measures work," Weir said in a news release.

The OMA isn't in a position to bring about any of the changes it is advocating, it can only help to focus government and public attention on the problem and its recommendations for addressing it.

Weir said the organization will be raising the issue with the Ontario government. So far there's been no response from the government.

For the campaign, it devised images of food products, a serving of french fries from a fast food restaurant, a pizza box, a juice pack, a carton of chocolate milk, branded with the types of eye catching images and warnings that have changed the face of cigarette packaging.

The juice box bore a graphic picture of a deep ulcer on the sole of a foot, a limb-threatening problem people with diabetes can face.

The milk carton was printed with a warning declaring that a half litre of chocolate milk (the larger of the individual sizes sold) contains 360 calories and 12.5 teaspoons of sugar.

They also displayed a take-out pizza box emblazoned with the image of a slimy, discoloured organ and warning that downing too many slices could result in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Another shows a child?s juice box featuring a photo of a foot afflicted by ugly diabetic ulcers. "Excess consumption of this product contributes to obesity, Type 2 Diabetes and related complications," it warns.

The doctors compared their ideas to the aggressive anti-smoking campaign that's been ongoing in the province since the 1960's. The doctors had already been calling for:

?- Legislation that would require calorie contents to be listed adjacent to the items on menus? and menu boards at chain restaurants and school cafeterias;
- An education campaign to help inform Ontarians about the impact of caloric intake on weight and obesity; and
?- Making physical activity/education mandatory throughout high school.

Anti-tobacco campaigns have helped to reduce smoking rates in Ontario from close to 50% in the 1960s to less than 20% today.

According to the doctors, tax increases were the most important reason for this success.

The OMA?s proposals add to a growing list of contentious strategies on the issue emerging from the public health world.

A leading Calgary hypertension expert called earlier this year for excessive amounts of sugar, salt and saturated fats to be labeled as ?pathogens? ? a word normally applied to viruses and other disease-causing bugs. An article in the journal Nature suggested an age limit for buying sugared soft drinks, while another paper suggested that child-welfare officials should temporarily take certain obese children away from their parents.

Source: http://www.am980.ca/news/local/story.aspx?ID=1796511

quinton coples a.j. jenkins riley reiff david decastro aj jenkins shea mcclellin nfl draft 2012