Professor Boyd Swinburn told a diabetes conference in Wellington that “the fast food industry pays lip service to the battle against rising obesity rates.” He argued that there is an “unbalanced battle between the food industry and public health promoters,” and listed the classic tactics that industry uses to prevent attempts to regulate it.
Instead, he said, the food industry could stop undermining public health messages, stop advertising junk food to children (advertising works!), reformulate products so they are healthier, reduce portion sizes, and restrict the use of health claims on packaging.
And any changes to food in rich countries should also be done in poor countries.
Read more: Dominion Post, 2 April, 2008
