World Health Organization adopts global health and diet recommendations: reduce sugars, processed foods, soft drinks and junk food advertising

In other words, the WHO has adopted the Consumer Wellness Research Center approach to health! Well, not quite: the CWRC recommends eating no refined sugars at all, no refined white flour, no aspartame, no hydrogenated oils, and so on. But many of the stated strategies are similar. No wonder the U.S. sugar industry couldn't stand the recommendations: if people follow the WHO advice and make healthier dietary choices, they'll be eating and drinking far less of the disease-promoting junk food and soft drinks that are heavily promoted by U.S. companies. Remember: the United States is the world's largest exporter of chronic disease, and the U.S. sugar industry bitterly fought the WHO recommendations. Big Sugar, you see, doesn't really care about whether people get healthy or not, they just want to sell more sugar!

Astoundingly, the sugar industry in the U.S. continues to claim there's "no evidence whatsoever" that sugar consumption is related to diseases like obesity or diabetes. It reminds me of the old Big Tobacco denials, and it's a great example of just how twisted the ethics can become at profit-seeking corporations: they'll say anything to make a buck, regardless of the pain and suffering their products cause throughout the world.

Kudos to the World Health Organizations for adopting a much-needed set of health guidelines that, if followed, would greatly enhance the health of the global population. Unfortunately, it's not a binding document, and you can be that it will be swept under the rug in the United States, where junk food corporations hold tremendous politicay sway. In their minds, they can minimize any "damage" to their profits by making sure the public never hears about the WHO recommendations. Soft drink companies, in particular, depend on an ignorant population that's kept in the dark about the health consequences of consuming these disease-promoting beverages. Much the same is true for fast food companies who keep on selling disease-promoting fried foods, high-fat foods and high glycemic index foods to an unwary public that continues to experience skyrocketing rates of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and mental disorders.

• GENEVA (AP) --- The world's health leaders formally adopted a global strategy to combat bad diet and exercise habits Saturday, part of a wave of determination to fight diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cancer.
• The voluntary plan offers a blueprint for countries trying to develop policies that make it easier for people to eat healthier food and exercise more.
• The agreement sets out recommendations such as the reduction of sugar, fat and salt in processed food; the control of food marketing to children and of health claims on packaging; and more comprehensive nutrition labeling and health education.
• Regardless of whether countries end up using the unprecedented plan, experts say the pace of obesity's spread across the planet, the predictions of what it will cost to deal with the consequences, and the food industry's lingering fears of a successful lawsuit by fat people are all forces certain to motivate changes.