In 2003, the WHO came out with controversial report W.H.O. T.R.S. 916 saying people needed cut their sugar intake to less than 10% of daily calories. Associate Dean of University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, epidemiologist and vice chair of the UN panel on diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic disease Shiriki Kumanyika never saw the political buzz-saw coming at her.
Read the report: www.who.int/hpr/NPH/docs/who_fao_expert_report.pdf
The U.S. Sugar Association targeted the WHO report because it asked people cut their calories for sugar to 10% of their diet. The Corn Refiners Association makers of the soft drink sweeter high fructose corn syrup asked Thompson to personal intervene and have the WHO report removed from the WHO website. Senators Larry Craig (R-ID) and John Breaux called for Thompson to ask the WHO to cease further promotion of the report.
Read the Sugar Industry and it’s Congressional allies sought to block the report: www.commercialalert.org/sugarthreat.pdf
Thompson could have shot back "Since when does the U.S. food industry control a 160 person World Health Organization expert panel on a dietary advice?" But Thompson quietly acquiesced to the food industry request.
To Thompson’s credit what more could he have done in a White House Administration that believes the power of politics lies in laissez faire economics and food industry money. The inconvenient truth is our diet, our diseases and our deaths grease the wheels of our economy. Health care is might be a human right in Articles 25 and 27 of UN Declaration on Human Rights but if we keep going on the road we are on health care will be a luxury only a few of us will be able to afford.
Thompson was asked a few questions and then shook hands.
Thompson comments on the issues like Iraq came across (to me) as authoritarian in a top-down approach. He understood Iraq’s sectarian troubles and said Iraq should be divided into 3 confederations: Sunni, Shia and Kurd. People need to support Bush and hope for the best.
Hope is something you hear a lot from Republicans. To quote Colin Powell "Hope is not a plan." Republicans are running on hope.
Thompson said the GOP needs to take Iowa, Minnestota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Thompson admited it was an uphill fight because of Iraq.
Thompson was asked about taxes and the Alterative Minimum Tax. He said we should 3 kinds of revenue by adding a flat tax and have an AMT, an income tax and flat tax. People will pay the lowest of three.
To Thompson’s acclaim he noted we spent $2 trillion dollars on health care and 90% of it on disease. Chronic disease has to be better fought with health promotion. It is common sense.
How can I believe a man who had a quiet but major hand silencing a WHO science panelist when she tried to promote a mild WHO report?
When I asked Gov. Thompson about the WHO/FAO report. Thompson said he didn’t know about the WHO report. He has given over 100 speeches on wellness in the last year but does not recall the report he did nothing to save from besieged by food industry attacks. Sounds like a plausible denial to me. I have watched too many industries play this game developed by the tobacco lobby. Make concessions with the health and medical community and besiege them with industry money and attack with any science paradigms and scientists with "sound science" lingo. I am beginning to seriously doubt any Republican has ever read Thomas Kuhn’s "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." Paradigms change as we look at life with new set of eyes and slowly change our mind. Former Senator and heart surgeon, Bill Frist says it takes the American medical community 17 years to change. Tommy Thompson knows 17 years is too long.
Shiriki Kumanyika was accused talking our both sides of her mouth (because of an Institute of Medicine report said something different- she was a panelist and not the sole author) and being a junk scientist on JunkScience.com. Both Republicans and the sweetener industry attacked Dr. Kumanyika for promoting what most people see as common sense. The most common tactic used by industry "When you don’t like the science, attack the scientist." It is a common tactic from cancer/pesticides, global warming/fossil fuels and fast food/obesity.
Maybe Gov. Thompson has been talking out both sides of his mouth on wellness too?
Thompson talked about using common sense for health care reform but common sense has not worked in the past what makes Thompson think it will work now? Effective health promotion to reduce obesity could mean a recession for much of America.Tommy Thompson might turnout to be a paper tiger. But he is right about wellness. Obesity related diseases cost close to a $100 billion dollars and rising.
The WHO/FAO report was hammmered for it’s considerable policy relevance. Thompson deputy and G.W.H Bush’s godson, William Steiger director of the Office of Global Health Affairs at HHS sent WHO director-general Lee Jong-wook a letter with language invoking "sound science" rhetoric and included an exhaustive critique of the WHO report saying the United States had a different "interpretation of science" and questioned the WHO’s lack of emphasis on "personal responsibility" in choosing a healthy diet.
Personal responsibility is a talking point from food industry lingo.
Derek Yach (who oversaw the WHO/FAO diet report process) "I think the one thing which is emerging stronger and stronger is the role of soft drinks." The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney- Basic books
I am on the right track see my last 3 blogs. Gersham’s law works for the food industry and against people. And metabolic syndrome is a costly rising tide. We need comprehensive universial health care reform.