Why the UK needs a national nutrition strategy

For immediate release
8 September 2003

In the latest edition of Science and Public Affairs (the quarterly magazine of the British Association for the Advancement of Science), Professor Sue Fairweather-Tait sets out why she feels a national nutrition strategy is needed:-

The annual estimated cost to the NHS of diet-related diseases (e.g. cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes and osteoporosis) is in excess of £15 billion. Costs are escalating because of our ageing population and the current obesity epidemic, all of which have ultimately to be met by taxpayers. Both Wales and Scotland are developing nutrition strategies to deal with their regional health issues, but there is no unifying national strategy. The multidisciplinary nature of nutrition (spanning molecular to social sciences) makes it relevant to several agencies and Government departments, including the Food Standards Agency, Department of Health, DEFRA, MRC and BBSRC, but there is no primary ownership, and no one appointed to harness all the national resources to develop a nutrition strategy to improve public health in the UK. Nutrition education is not included in the school curriculum, and doctors are trained to diagnose and treat disease, with little emphasis on prevention by means of a healthier diet.

The government is taking the long view to tackle environmental issues. We are not told to put on a gas mask because the air is polluted – action is taken to clean it up. The root causes of obesity and diet-related diseases need to be tackled with a similarly long term approach. The food industry and pharmaceutical companies cannot be expected to take the lead, but meanwhile the taxpayer is losing out. We cannot afford the predicted health care costs – immediate action is needed (for example to subsidise healthy foods, which are often beyond the budget of low-income families) to ensure long term economic and human health in the UK.

Full article, in pdf format, attached here

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