The MAHA saga continues: Senator Sanders’ bipartisan hearing on chronic disease prevention
I have to say, it’s thrilling to see chronic disease prevention at last getting the attention it totally deserves. Last week, Senator Bernie Sanders’ Health, Education, Labor & Pensions committee held a hearing: What Is the FDA Doing to Reduce the Diabetes and Obesity Epidemics in America and Take on the Greed of the Food and Beverage Industry?
Sanders was eloquent about the need to prevent obesity and its healtth consequences, particularly among children.
Food Fix has an excellent summary: Concern about chronic disease crisis takes a bipartisan turn
During the two-hour hearing, FDA was roundly criticized for not taking a more active role in combating diet-related diseases and cracking down on the food industry. (Nevermind that Congress has not been on FDA about these issues and has actually thwarted the agency’s work on nutrition over the years at the behest of industry, but I digress!)
If you were listening to this hearing, you really couldn’t tell which lawmaker was Republican or Democrat based on their comments alone. And as far as I could tell, no lawmaker came to the defense of the industry. Instead, there was broad, bipartisan agreement that the status quo isn’t acceptable.
….The sharpest exchange of the hearing this week came from Sen. Sanders. He pressed FDA Commissioner Robert Califf on what progress FDA has made to warn Americans about the harms of processed foods. Sanders noted that it was 14 years ago that FDA began looking into front-of-pack labeling, and a proposal has still not been released. Meanwhile, many other countries have gone ahead with such labels and/or gone further, implementing bold front-of-pack warning labels.
Califf, who I find thoughtful and impressively honest, was pushed hard by Sanders. He explained the congressional restrictions on what FDA can do (money, laws). Obviously, these can be changed.
Mostly, I found the emphasis on stopping marketing of junk food to kids particularly heartening.
In 2006, the Institute of Medicine published a terrific report on Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?
One of its recommendations:
Recommendation 8: Government at all levels should marshal the full range of public policy levers to foster the development and promotion of healthful diets for children and youth.
It went on to say:
If voluntary efforts related to advertising during children’s television programming are unsuccessful in shifting the emphasis away from high-calorie and low-nutrient foods and beverages to the advertising of healthful foods and beverages, Congress should enact legislation mandating the shift on both broadcast and cable television.
Well, yes. It’s been nearly 20 years since that report. Surely, the time has come.
