Waistlines everywhere are expanding as Western fast food culture extends its reach to the Third World, where dining on burgers ’n fries is often considered a barometer of fiscal achievement. And because poor eating habits generally begin in childhood, the World Health Organization is urging governments to clamp down on ads for “sugar-rich items” aimed at impressionable youngsters and to consider slapping heavy taxes on such foods.
Going up against food corporations that are intentionally endangering the health of children is no easy task, but a decade of battling is starting to pay off. Here are some of the latest developments from the frontlines.
In the United States
The Good News: In the face of federal inaction, some of the larger and more progressive states are taking matters into their own hands. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed legislation to ban soft drinks and other junk food from high schools in an attempt to “terminate obesity in California once and for all.” The new laws extend a ban already in place at primary schools. New York, which has the largest state-school system in the US, has followed suit with similar legislation taking effect next September.
The Bad News: Nearly half of American children will be overweight by 2010. According to the US Surgeon General, the long-term health problems posed by its progressively pudgier populace “will dwarf 9/11 or any other terrorist attempt.” Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission decided last year that the food industry should simply police itself rather than have the federal government create new laws regarding selling or marketing crap to kids.
In France
The Good News: A new law requires food marketers to either add a health message to ads for any manufactured product or pay a tax equivalent to 1.5 percent of their annual ad budget to a national institute promoting healthier living.
The Bad News: While the country’s large Muslim population has traditionally eschewed Western fast food, those days may be numbered after the successful launch of the first “Beurger King Muslim” restaurant (the name plays on the French word “Beur,” meaning a second-generation North African immigrant) in the Parisian suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. While the burgers are halal – made with meat slaughtered according to Islamic dietary laws – the menu is standard unhealthy fast food fare.
In the United Kingdom
The Good News: The British government’s Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly, recently announced that “from next September no schools will be able to have vending machines selling crisps, chocolate and fizzy drinks” and promised £220 million to improve school food.
The Bad News: The School Food Trust created to make the changes doesn’t have a single nutritionist on board and is made up almost entirely of the very organizations previously responsible for serving up food condemned as “a scandal” by Kelly herself. And the recommended changes are estimated to cost £486 million, over twice the allocated budget. Currently one in seven British children is considered obese and over half suffer from tooth decay.
Andrew Fleming
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