Transcript Improving Diet and Health in a New Political Environment

Bruce Silverglade
[email protected]
 www.cspinet.org
Fighting Childhood Obesity in
a New Political Environment
11th Annual Network for a
Healthy California Conference
“Inspiring Healthy Change Together”
March 4, 2009
Change Has Come to Washington
It is time to think about
new possibilities!
New Priorities
 The Administration is committed to
“prevention”
 Expansion of health care coverage will
provide a legislative vehicle for
innovative programs
 Economic stimulus provides additional
opportunities
Grass Roots Support
 Community based programs constitute a
grassroots network for national
initiatives
 Creative state and local programs can
serve as models for national programs
 States are laboratories of democracy
What is Possible
 While the U.S. government largely
focused on personal responsibility for
the last 8 years . . .
 Other countries established
innovative programs to combat
childhood obesity and improve diet
and health
Areas of Activity
 Free fruits and vegetables
 Restricting food advertising to
children
 Social Marketing
 Encouraging product reformulation
 “Kid friendly” nutrition labeling
Free Fruit and Vegetable Snack
Programs
 The UK since 2004 provided all 4-6
year olds (2 million children in 16,000
schools) a free serving of a fruit or
vegetable each day
 £42 million ($71 million) of lottery
money used to fund program
Free Fruit and Vegetable Snack
Programs
 The European Union committed €90
million a year ($113 million) to
providing free fruits and vegetables to
school children – money will be
distributed as matching grants to
national governments
 More than twice as much money as
the US farm bill provides for 2008-09
Restrictions on Children’s Food
Marketing
 France, the United Kingdom, and
other countries have instituted
controls on broadcast advertising of
low nutrition foods to children
 Food industry is global (Kraft, Coca
Cola, Kellogg’s comply with these
programs overseas)
France Requires Nutrition Education
Messages in Food Ads
 Law requires one of four government
nutrition messages in all food ads -message must be stated verbally in
children’s TV advertising
 Advertisers who don’t include the
message must pay 1.5% cost of the ad
as tax earmarked for government
nutrition education programs
Rotating Nutrition Messages
Required in all Food Ads in France
 “For your health, eat at least 5 fruits
and vegetables per day”
 “For your health, avoid foods high in
saturated fat, salt, or sugar”
 “For your health, avoid eating
between meals”
 “For your health, engage in physical
activity each day”
UK Advertising Ban for Children
 UK FSA set nutrition profiles for foods of
minimal nutritional value that should not
be advertised to children under 16
 UK Office of Communications set
standards for determining TV programs
that appeal to children under 16
 TV advertising of foods of minimal
nutritional value reduced by 50%
Product Reformulation
 UK FSA working on official targets for
reducing added sugars in processed
foods based on successful program
for salt/saturated fat reductions
 UK pressured companies to reduce
salt/saturated fat levels in specific
food categories within a set time or
face threat of regulation
Improving Nutrition Labeling
• NLEA 1990
Improving Nutrition Labeling
 % Daily Values - studies show that
most Americans cannot interpret
them correctly
 Nutrition Facts Label is not “kid
friendly”
Putting Nutrition Information on
the Fronts of food packages
 The EU has formally proposed listing
nutrient content per serving and
GDAs for 6 nutrients on the fronts of
food packages
 The UK FSA has gone one step
further and developed a set of “traffic
light” symbols for use on the fronts of
food labels
Front of Pack Nutrition Labeling
Using Symbols
Front of Pack Nutrition Labeling
Using Symbols
So Simple – My 5 year old can tell
the difference
The Way Forward
 California is larger than many
European nations
 States have historically taken the lead
(Mandatory nutrition labeling passed
the California state assembly before
legislation passed the US House of
Representatives)
The Way Forward
 Innovative programs from overseas
can be used as inspiration for new
actions in the US
 US based multinationals are already
complying with such programs
overseas – No reason why they can’t
provide US consumers the same
benefits
The Way Forward
 States should place these issues on
the table for consideration and
pressure the federal government to
take such steps nationally
 It’s possible!
Bruce Silverglade
[email protected]
 www.cspinet.org