National Diabetes Strategy: Small step forward, but overall inadequate

06.07.2020 12:39

The German Alliance for Noncommunicable Diseases DANK welcomes the adoption of the first national diabetes strategy, but criticizes the content on prevention as grossly inadequate. Only one measure can really be described as progress: children's food should in future correspond to the WHO's nutritional profile. “This would finally allow the overly sugary children's breakfast cereal to disappear from the shelves,” says DANK spokeswoman Barbara Bitzer, managing director of the German Diabetes Society: “Germany should not wait for a European regulation here, but should protect children immediately from unhealthy foods, for example through a Advertising ban.”

When it comes to soft drinks, which are also particularly problematic, the diabetes strategy remains too vague. Only the demand from health insurance companies and scientific societies to reduce the sugar content by 50 percent should be examined. At the same time, however, the far too low reduction target of 15 percent of the BMEL's reduction strategy is mentioned. “The diabetes strategy must not repeat the mistakes of the reduction strategy,” warns Bitzer, “such a small reduction would be a purely sham measure. “Germany would fall further behind other European countries when it comes to sugar reduction.”

For comparison: Great Britain reduced the sugar content in soft drinks by an average of 34 percent within two years with a tax (1). “It is incomprehensible why politics here is not based on the successes of other countries, but continues to allow sugary drinks to increase the risk of obesity and subsequent diseases,” says Bitzer. “Here, the interests of those who earn money from such unhealthy products.”

DANK calls for the planned revision of the Prevention Act to include truly effective population-wide measures to promote healthy eating, such as higher taxes on unhealthy products while at the same time relieving the burden on healthy products. “Ultimately, the deciding factor for a healthy or unhealthy diet is the supermarket environment,” says Bitzer, “because the price reaches the entire population.”

Sources:

(1) Bandy KL et al: Reductions in sugar sales from soft drinks in the UK from 2015 to 2018. BMC Medicine (2020) 18:20