A special report published in the latest issue of the Pan American Journal of Public Health calls for urgent changes in nutrition and agriculture policies to avert a dramatic increase in chronic non-communicable diseases in both developed and developing countries.
Experts meeting at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center urge governments to promote access to healthy food as a human right
Washington, D.C., May 1 2013 (PAHO/WHO) — A special report published in the latest issue of the Pan American Journal of Public Health calls for urgent changes in nutrition and agriculture policies to avert a dramatic increase in chronic non-communicable diseases in both developed and developing countries.
The Bellagio Report on Healthy Agriculture, Healthy Nutrition, Healthy People is based on the deliberations of 19 experts from nine countries—including Deputy Director Jon K. Andrus of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)—who met at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Italy in late 2012. The experts concluded that poor nutrition—including poverty-related malnutrition as well as unhealthy modern diets—is "the single most important obstacle to better health worldwide." Their report urges governments to use taxation, subsidies, pricing and other measures to ensure access to a healthy diet as a "human right."
The experts examined evidence on malnutrition, undernutrition, and poor dietary choices and the contribution of these to growing rates of chronic communicable diseases worldwide. Among their specific conclusions were:
- Sugar, especially in the form of high-energy fructose in soft drinks, poses a major and insidious health threat, especially to children. The health threat is comparable to that from cigarette smoking.
- Most diets today are deficient in omega-3 fatty acids and too high in omega-6 fatty acids.
- Emerging market economies face simultaneous nutritional problems of both developed and developing countries, that is, inadequate intake of calories and micronutrients due to poverty and poor dietary choices typical of modern diets.
- The accelerated industrialization of agriculture since the mid-20th century has contributed to disruption of the nitrogen cycle, loss of biodiversity, and global warming.
- Allocating farm land to crops for biofuels and animal feed rather than food for humans has increased food prices and resulted in transnational purchases of arable land in poor countries.
The report says that "as a matter of urgency" heads of state and government should make nutrition a national priority and that ministries of health, rather than ministries of agriculture, should have the lead role in nutrition policymaking.
In addition to using taxation, subsidies and other policy tools to increase availability and consumption of healthier foods, the report also urges governments to "strongly consider penalizing those who put on the market products that are harmful to health." Health warnings should be considered for all sugar-sweetened beverages, the experts said.
The report also recommends incorporating nutrition into medical and health-care training and urges the establishment of a series of regional research and education centers focused on genetics, nutrition and fitness.
Participants in the meeting included leading physicians, nutritionists, agriculturists, economists, policy experts, lawyers, representatives of industry and representatives of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Bellagio was the site of the 1969 conference of scientists and international aid officials that led to the "Green Revolution," which averted widespread starvation in Asia through the use of high-yield grain varieties.
Other articles in the current issue of PAJPH:
- Genital human papillomaviruses among women of reproductive age in Jamaica
- Factors associated with level of knowledge and attitudes toward research among medical students in Peru, 2011
- Socioeconomic determinants of cervical cancer screening in Latin America
- Public policymaking on breast cancer in Latin America
- Teamwork in primary care: the experience of Portugal
- Mexican pharmacies: benefits and risks for border residents in the United States of America and Mexico
- Inequalities in infant mortality among municipalities in Brazil according to the Family Development Index
- Right-to-health litigation in three Latin American countries: a systematic literature review
- Health care access barriers and facilitators: a qualitative systematic review
The Pan American Journal of Public Health (PAJPH) is an open-access, peer-reviewed monthly journal of PAHO/WHO. Its mission is to disseminate scientific public health information to strengthen national and local health systems and improve the health of the peoples of the Americas.
Links:
- Pan American Journal of Public Health, March 2013, Vol. 33, No. 3
- Bellagio Report on Healthy Agriculture, Healthy Nutrition, Healthy People
- More information about the Pan American Journal of Public Health
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