Following on from the previous post about the healthy rebranding of soft drinks, Terry Slevin of Cancer Council WA, has sent in the following comment:
“To my frustration I missed the Rosemary and Derek show at Sydney Uni – but it would have been a bit of a drive home…
But it seems we are asked to pick between 2 narratives here.
1. The public health warrior -fresh from wins in the tobacco wars bringing proven commitment and skills to offer direction to the well meaning but slightly misguides food conglomerates, to modify their business practices to the benefit of humanity
OR
2. The clever and once pure champion of the people who has sold out to play the role of chief PR man and government manipulator – driven by a big salary but with the prime goal to prevent or at least substantially forestall meaningful and effective regulation to reduce the so far unfettered commercial freedoms of the multinationals who are profiting while driving the international obesity epidemic.
The truth may be 1. or 2. or more likely, some complex combination of both. But ultimately the importance of the accuracy of the narrative plays a very poor second fiddle to this essential question.
Is Pepsico, and big food more broadly, increasing, decreasing or remaining static on the hard measure of the amount of sugar, fat and salt being poured into the world’s food supply?
When Derek and mates can answer that question – via independently audited means – we’ll have useful information to wrestle with. The rest is largely spin.”
Terry, a better question may be to find out why there hasn’t been a national dietary survey for a while.