Time for a Health Bottom Line

December.  Time to reflect on the November 'Bebi Drinks' activity; there will be more products like this and there are already many on our shelves.  Why did we care so much about this product that so many people piped up?

Australia, like many OECD nations, is gaining weight.  As a dietitian, who uses her calculator, and, has tried to support people achieve their weight goals, I know how easy it is to gain weight and how incredibly hard it is to lose.

A main reason drinks are targeted in weight loss programs is because it is far easier to drink more than you need, than it is to bite, chew and swallow a whole food.  Drinks don't always get calculated in our daily intake - because they are a drink.

For many people, giving up their non-water drinks is difficult, almost overwhelmingly difficult.  This is because 'it' has become part of our lives: we have been introduced to a taste, a brand, a shape, a colour, a fun treat, early enough in life that it is our normal.  This, of course, is the intended outcome for the manufacturer.

Taste, and the experience of taste, is intentional, and of course, essential: the right amount, type, and mix of ingredients to get maximum satisfaction and heightened response...short-lived but intense in your mouth...leaving you wanting more.  Then there is the brand loyalty, price drops, gimmicks, competitions, re-branding of the same product....all to keep you interested for the course of your life.  Food companies know, the earlier they create a 'brand loyalty' the longer they will have sales, and increases the likelihood of brand dominance (which then goes on to other branded products and world domination).  Sales. Profit. Organic growth. And taking over new markets.  Nothing.  Else.  Matters.  Definitely not health.

I can hear you singing Metallica in your head... Stop.  Collaborate and listen.

So here is the thing with Bebi.  It is juice.  For infants (6mths+).  With a ready to go teat.  Brand loyalty...starting at 6months.  Sweet drink...sweeter than water is all I need to know.  Bebi epitomises everything "health" is trying to undo at the other end...when there is excess weight...so hard to get off....food preferences for sweet....reliance on ready-to-go.....habit forming....brand loyalty......you had it, so you will feed it to your children.....

Buuut, lets not flog dead horse...

The segue to the 'health bottom line' is this: I knew Bebi was 'wrong'.  But of the three 'organisations' set up to be the checks and balances for food products, ACCC, FSANZ, and in this case, the MAIF, it was difficult to make a case.  In fact, of the complaints I made, the responses, in general were that the product did not fall under their jurisdiction and/or 'problem' was unclear.

If a product like this can enter the market uncontested, but then, if it weren't for some fired up parents, would have stayed on the shelves because there was nothing 'wrong', tells me, its time to change the rules.  If governments are truly serious about health, a productive economy, and equity, it is time for a Health Bottom Line to be adopted and completely supported across health and social policy.

The intention of the Health Bottom Line is to influence the food supply toward a 'healthy normal'.  Health Bottom Line, applies to me as a health professional, to food processors and manufacturers, and to food retailers.

Australia already has a reference point, a set of guidelines against which to benchmark products against to achieve a healthier Australia, these are the Australian Dietary Guidelines (aka the healthy eating plate and that pyramid).

*Ahem* mi-mi-mi-miiiii...*gets high horse out of stable*
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A HEALTH BOTTOM LINE MEANS....

1.  Food Industry
If the product you are thinking about developing does not meet the Australian Dietary Guidelines, don't develop it.

2.  Retailers
If it's not on the pyramid, it's not on the shelves.

3.  Health professionals (and advocacy groups and consumers)
Publicly oppose any product that enters the market that does not meet the Australian Dietary Guidelines.  Products targeting and/or marketed to children (<15 years) will be particularly scrutinised.

Support innovation and marketing that closes the gap on making healthy choices easy choices (relative to all other choices).

Have a responsibility to speak up and oppose the importing, distribution, development and sale of any product that contradicts the Australian Dietary Guidelines.
...........................

Before you hammer me with economic arguments for why we should maintain the status quo...I recognise the economic fragility, the global market, and Australia's position.  However, we know from history, where one market fails, another takes its place.  At the moment, we are tracking toward an economy at the expense of health. We cannot continue down this trajectory.  I support the 'free market' to move away from a reliance on packaging and processing, to health and shared global sustainability.  And, I believe, this IS possible.

Even simpler: it is a false economy when governments choose to spend millions (and lose millions in lost productivity and opportunity cost) to try to fix a problem they might have avoided. 

Epilogue
The Bebi case has highlighted a total absence of checks and balances for food items that contradict making healthy choices the easy choices.  This gap can be filled by the Health Bottom Line.

Tips du jour
1.  'Health' is the new 'environment': the addition of 'environment' to bottom lines applies to 'health'
2.  The benchmarks for a Health Bottom Line are already available! the Australian Dietary Guidelines
3.  Nothing else is working

Other blogs by me

[Series] Posts in response (prn)
Pete Evans
Dietitians

[Series] Trust in professional integrity (March 2014)
March is [unofficially] professional integrity month 
The story of dietitians for professional integrity
What is professional integrity?

[Series] Are dietitians effective? (July 2013)
Heads up GPs, we can save $billions together

Evidence-based confessions of a dietitian

Dietitians: as effective as the evidence from clinical trials

Evidence small health changes are good

[Other stuff]

Time for a health bottom line
The power of consumers
NO juice for Australian babies
Contributing to understanding dietetic practice
Maximising online survey participation
An evidence-based food future?