Video interview with Dr. João Breda (WHO Europe)

June 18th, 2014

During the recent European Logo Roundtable, Choices and the other FOP organisations had the great honour to welcome Dr. João Breda, Programme Manager Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity from WHO Europe as an observer. CIF used this opportunity for a short video interview. In the interview Dr. Breda acknowledges the importance of global industry participation and science-based positive FOP logo’s in order to counteract the rising problem of obesity.

The video interview can be seen here.

WHO: “Health has an obligatory place on any post-2015 agenda”.

May 27th, 2014

During her address to the sixty-seventh World Health Assembly, Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, made multiple references highlighting her determination to take action against the ongoing obesity crisis and prevalence of diet-related non-communicable diseases. She pointed out that in a time where diabetes treatments alone absorb close to fifty percent of some middle income countries' health  budget and childhood obesity becomes a global problem, “…this century must be an era where prevention receives at least as much priority as cure”. This includes the establishment of a high-level Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity that will publish a consensus report in early 2015 and define science-based opportunities for intervention.

Unhealthy diets greater threat to health than tobacco; UN expert calls for global regulation

May 21st, 2014

This week the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, confirmed the need for a global agreement to deal with unhealthy diets. According to De Schutter, despite the launch of the WHO’s Global Strategy on Diet Physical Activity and Health ten years ago, the international community does not pay enough attention to the growing obesity epidemic, which is “…now a greater threat to global health than tobacco”. Therefore De Schutter sees an urgent need to set-up a framework convention on adequate diets, which could include measures such as the taxation of unhealthy products, regulating food composition, and taking action against junk food advertising, amongst others. The full news item can be found here.