Diet report blocked

Press, 4 July 1983, Page 10

Diet report blocked

NZPA London A medically-backed British Government-recom-mended report advising that the British should change their daily diet has been blocked by the Department of Health for more than two years. The controversial document put together by a panel of leading doctors, food specialists and scientists has been left unpublished due to determined opposition to its findings, says a report in the “Sunday Times.” In the report, a copy of which has been obtained by the “Sunday Times,” it is said that the average British diet is a contributory cause of many western diseases, particularly heart problems. The newspaper reported

that the blocking of the report casts doubt over the desire of the British Government and the food industry to improve what Britons eat.

The report sets dietary targets which it wants the Government and the food industry to pursue over the next five years, including a 10 per cent reduction in fat and sugar intake, and a 25 per cent rise in fibre consumption. The Department of Health has yet to accept the findings, although it was the Government which four years ago set up the national advisory committee on nutrition education which prepared the study. Heading the opposition has been the British Nutrition Foundation, which has representatives on the committee.