No holds barred in war on junk food

The momentum to challenge the destructive role of poor, sugary foods in our diet and lives, especially in our children’s development, is at last gathering momentum. Even at this late hour, this is to be welcomed and encouraged to the point where policymakers are emboldened to become far more assertive, less timorous, than they are today. It is, after all, a matter of life or death, primarily the lives of the poorest, least educated in society.

This latest move comes from the HSE, which has decided to ban the sale of junk food via vending machines in hospitals. This initiative deserves a positive reaction, but must be tempered by the fact that, for more than a decade, health authorities have known of the direct correlation between junk food and soaring obesity rates. It would not have required spectacular foresight or courage to have made this decision 10 years ago. It might even have contributed to reducing the escalation of shocking obesity rates.

This has become an undeniable crisis of our time as obesity rates, and the prevalence of overweight people, have increased with alarming speed over the past 20 years. It has been described by the WHO as a “global epidemic”. In 2000, more than 300m people were obese but it is feared that, within a decade, up to half of the population of America will be so afflicted. The issue is a major public health problem throughout Europe.

A manageable factor in this process was confirmed by a WHO/UN report some weeks ago which showed the direct link between an increase in junk food outlets and an increase in obesity in the host community. In other words, more fast food outlets means more obese people.

The HSE veto is very welcome but an indication of how difficult this campaign will be came earlier when Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said junk food vending machines cannot be banned from schools. This seems a hang-dog, feeble response, one lacking determination. Surely the Department of Education can find some way of exercising effective leverage in this situation. After all, the minister would hardly allow schools sell cigarettes, so why should they be allowed sell junk food to children?

The response to the suggestion from Safefood that supermarkets remove sweet stands from checkout areas, also indicates how difficult this campaign will be. Perceptive, responsible retailers know that they can only continue to exploit this captive audience only as long as apathy and ignorance prevail... as well as the lethargy of the Irish consumer, who has not yet learned how to influence business by changing retailers. Consumers should be more selective and consider abandoning outlets that put their commercial ambitions before the health of their customers and their customers’ children.

All of these developments are important in the fight against life-destroying obesity but one factor, one discipline can outweigh all of them — a level of personal responsibility that will build healthy eating habits and reject junk food in its myriad forms. This is the ideal but, in the face of the almost unimaginable power of the conglomerates behind sugar and fast food, the State should offer every support it can to society besieged by those whose business ambitions far outweigh their commitment to social responsibility.