Download Nutritional Paradigms and the Role of Regulation in

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