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Nutritional Paradigms and the Role of Regulation in Achieving Healthier Diets Dr Gyorgy Scrinis Ministry of Health Presentation Santiago, Chile January, 2016 New Era of Nutrition Policies and Regulation of Food Corporations • Neoliberal Era (1980s- ) – Focus on consumer education – Minimal restrictions on industry – Market-driven innovation • Post-Neoliberal Era ?? (2010 - ) – Regulatory and market pressure on food companies – Restrictions on industry products and practices – 1st stage: Voluntary regulations, industry standards – 2nd stage: Mandatory regulations, government standards • Regulations can be beneficial for industry: – provide political legitimation and market certainty Indirect Regulation of Production and Consumption • Labelling – Front-of-pack interpretive labelling • But still allow nutrient and health claims • Marketing to children • Taxes – Sugar-sweetened beverages – Sugar – Fat Direct Regulation of Production and Consumption • Food Availability – School food standards • Food Composition Standards – Trans-fats limits/bans (some countries) – Salt limits (South Africa) – Mandatory nutrient profiling systems? – Food processing standards? Nestlé’s Nutrient Profiling System (NPS) • Nestlé claim 80% of global product sales and 100% of children’s products meet its own NPS standard • But only 6-10% of sales in India meet independent NPS criteria (Access to Nutrition Index 2016) Nutritionism and Nutritional Reductionism • Nutritional Reductionism: – Reductive focus on nutrients – Reductive interpretation of nutrients • Nutritionism as dominant paradigm/ ideology • Limitations: – Limitations of nutricentric research – Undermines and contradicts other ways of understanding the food-health relationship – Easily translated into/captured by nutritional engineering and marketing Reductive Focus on Nutrients Levels of Engagement with Food • Nutrient Level • Nutrient-Level Reductionism • Single-Nutrient Reductionism • Food Level – Type of food – Level of processing of food • Dietary-Pattern Level – Food combinations – Dietary patterns – Traditional diets/cuisines Reductive Interpretation of Nutrients • Decontextualisation: single nutrients taken out of context – Eg. fat is ‘bad’ regardless of source • Simplification: simplified science and dietary advice – Eg. ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fats • Exaggeration: of health impacts of nutrients – Eg. omega 3 fats and brain health; soluble fibre and heart • Determinism (nutritional determinism): – nutrients as directly determining health Understanding Food Quality • How to define healthy and unhealthy food • Focus on Nutrient Composition – Single nutrients (‘good’ and ’bad’ nutrients) • Fats, carbs, protein, vitamins, fibre, sugars, sodium – Nutrient Profiling Systems • Advice to increase/decrease single nutrients • No differentiation of whole/natural and processed foods or ingredients • Cannot distinguish Nutrient Quantity from Food Quality Good and Bad Fats / Low Fat Campaign • Good and Bad Fats 1960s– Simplified, blackand-white categories – ‘Natural’ saturated fats vilified • Low Fat Campaign: 1980s-90s – Eat less fat – Low fat, reduced fat, no fat Margarine versus Butter • Margarine promoted as healthier than butter due to high polyunsaturated fat content (1960s - ) • Highly processed food promoted over wholefood on basis of nutrient profile • Trans-fats now another ‘bad fat’ (post 1990s- ) • Cholesterol-lowering, trans-free margarine Nutrient-Centred Approach to Food • Nutrient-Centred Scientific Research • Nutrient-Centred Dietary Guidelines • Nutrient-Centred Food Labelling • Nutrient-Centred Food Design and Marketing • Nutrient-Centred Food Policies and Regulations – Based on Nutrient Profiling Systems Nutricentric Food Engineering and Marketing • Nutritionally engineered foods – Fortified foods: eg. added vitamins – Nutrient-reduced foods: eg. reduced-fat milk – Functional foods: eg cholesterol-lowering margarine • Nutritionism exploited by food industry Food Processing Quality • Defining & Categorising Processed Foods – Processed-Reconstituted foods/ingredients (Scrinis 2013) – Ultra-Processed Products (NOVA system Carlos Monteiro et al) • Foods made primarily from deconstituted, refined, processed ingredients, little wholefood ingredients • Need to re-think scientific research, dietary guidelines, food labelling and nutrition policy based on food processing Food Processing Quality • Types of processed ingredients and techniques – Sugar, salt, vegetable oils, animal fats, flour, starches, artificial flavours, texturisers, sweeteners, etc – Deep frying, hydrogenation, extrusion, chemical synthesis • Characteristics of processed foods and ingredients – Generally high in sugar, salt, energy – Some evidence of direct harm of some ingredients – Hyper-palatable (superficial taste) – Rapidly-consummable – Easy to over-consume (calories, sugar, etc) Reformulation: Reducing ‘Bad’ Nutrients • Sugar, salt, saturated & trans-fats, energy – Important components of processed foods • Added Sugar & Salt used in excess – Good evidence of harm – Important starting point for regulatory intervention • Limitations: – Treated as nutrients: ‘nutrients to limit’ • Not as processed ingredients – Substituted with other processed ingredients • Eg. artificial sweeteners, modified starches – Limits to reduction of sugar, salt, fats – Ignores many other processed ingredients and their effects Nutricentric Food Labelling Nutricentric Interpretive Labelling Chilean Stop Labelling • Benefits – Very clear warning symbol – Clearly identifies sugar, salt, fat, energy – No positive labelling – Mandatory – Linked to advertising and school food policies • Limitations – Nutrient focused: sugar, salt, fat – Doesn’t distinguish quality from quantity – Other nutrient-claims still permitted Ingredient List as Food Label © Copyright The University of Melbourne 2011