Doctors Urge Food Makers To Promote Good Health
Following is the text of an AAP report based on interview with AMA President, Dr Bill Glasson, today.
AAP Report - Thursday 20 January 2005.
All food manufacturers should be compelled to spend a percentage of their advertising budget on promoting healthy eating and exercise, doctors said today.
Nearly one-quarter of Australian children are overweight or obese, and the Australian Medical Association (AMA) says it is up to industry, government and the community to reverse the trend.
"My message to the manufacturers and the government is, if you're going to advertise food products then you spend X per cent of that time or budget on a clear message," AMA president Dr Bill Glasson told AAP.
"It might just be telling young kids why it's important to exercise, or about what obesity does to you; a health message.
"Manufacturers sit on one side raking in these huge profits, yet on the other side we're trying to publicly fund huge problems with diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, as a consequence of us being overweight.
"If we don't get it right in our children, we never will."
In 2003 the government's National Obesity Taskforce declared research should be undertaken to assess the impact of food and drink advertising on childhood obesity.
However, a spokeswoman for Health Minister Tony Abbott has told the Sydney Morning Herald that no such funding has been provided to investigate the link.
It was "frivolous nonsense" to suggest there was no such link, Dr Glasson said.
"You advertise a product because you want people to buy it," he said.
"If you advertise, kids will go and buy the product, and if the products are fatty, then of course there's a link."
Food giant Kraft this week announced it would restrict its advertising to children in the United States, but the cheese and Vegemite-maker's Australian sister company has no such plans.
Dr Glasson urged Kraft Asia Pacific and other Australian food-makers to follow the US company's lead.
"All manufacturers have a responsibility to produce healthy food, to educate the community about correct eating habits and the balance between what we eat and how we exercise," he said.
"I think it's all our responsibility. It's yours, it's mine, it's ours as a community, to look after our children's health.
"That goes for those who manufacture food through to those who consume it and those, like parents, who teach our kids what's good for them and not good for them."
Comment was being sought from Kraft Asia Pacific and the government.
20 January 2005
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