Last week we told you about the Bush administration's contention that sugary and fatty foods shouldn't be singled out as factors in obesity. The U.S. opposition to the World Health Organization's plan to fight global fat has sparked an international food fight. How could the Bush administration possibly protest a 10 per cent limit on daily calorie intake from added sugar -- that's things like soda, candy and other sweetened foods? (The U.S. guideline is 25 percent --- one quarter of a day's calories from sugar!)
The Observer helps explain how America's top health officials could be so opposed to limiting consumption of sweets. Bush and some of his Washington cronies "have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from 'Big Sugar'. One of his main fundraisers is sugar baron Jose 'Pepe' Fanjul, head of Florida Crystals, who has raised at least $100,000 for November's presidential reelection campaign," the paper reports.
Outraged, the WHO's key anti-obesity point man wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson "accusing the US of making the health of millions of young Americans 'a hostage to fortune' because it has failed to take action over the fat epidemic as a result of its business interests, particularly the sugar lobby."
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