Opinion

The problem of obesity

Richard Hall8 Nov 2011

Here are some eyebrow-raising quotes from the Financial Times on 28 October:

It’s five years since ‘the ranks of the obese overtook the number of malnourished in the world’.
‘The global bill for type 2 diabetes alone … will, on some estimates, approach an annual $500bn by 2030.’
‘Unlike tobacco, moderate consumption of food and drink is not only harmless, but also necessary.’
’60% of the world’s nations have an economic output lower than the annual turnover of the top five food and beverage companies.’
‘Producers are themselves removing fats, sugars and salt by the truckload.’
Denmark, which recently ‘imposed the world’s first fat tax … highlighted something of an anomaly’. It ‘also produces relatively slim people’ … with obesity ‘lower than the European average’.
‘Denmark’s favourite television nutritionist offers an attractively simple alternative: why not just drop value-added tax on healthy food instead?’.

Richard Hall is chairman of Zenith International. You can also read his blog at BevBlog.

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Richard Hall is chairman of Zenith International.