Does a responsible consumer exist?

List of Contents

List of Contents

List of figures

List of abbreviations

1 Introduction
1.1 Problem statement
1.2 Target setting

2 Big Food and Big Pharma and their connection to politics

3 Understanding of a „responsible consumer”
3.1. Contradictions and interpretation problems
3.1.1. Paradoxon
3.1.2. The homogeneous consumer
3.1.3. Behavioral biases
3.1.4. Information model
3.2. The responsible consumer as a vehicle of lobbyism

4 Results

5 Conclusion

Bibliography

List of figures

Figure 1 Estimated output loss due to "diabesity" by 2035

Figure 2 The obesity and diabetes epidemic poses threat to future economic growth

Figure 3 high sugar consumption related to low income and diabetes level

List of abbreviations

BMJ British Medical Journal

GM genetically modified

ISO International Sugar Organisation

NCD Non-communicable diseases

WHO World Health Organisation

1 Introduction

Recently, I have heard about strawberry flavor made of sawdust¹. I have several interests connected to food. As sustainability, food production and transparency came into focus, and I started to wonder how this is possible? This kind of fraud on taste seems to be normal in the 21st century. Do corruption and lies related to food products have become normal in the 21st century? How influential are big companies on politics and global decision-making bodies?

Referring to the WHO, our nutrition system plays a significant role in the increase of non-communicable diseases (NCD). In 2011, it was said that in the European part of the WHO, 60 million people are suffering from diabetes, which means “[…] around 10.3 % of the male population and 9.6 % of the female population aged above 25 years. The prevalence is increasing which is mainly due to the spread of lifestyle-related risk factors”.²

Referring to the WHO, the main risk factors for diabetes are overweight / obesity, behavior (unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity) and socioeconomic disadvantages. Aside from the human cost, the significant costs for the treatment of the disease and its complications must be considered as well.³

Especially in low-income countries, diabetes represents as a huge burden on individuals and society and a significant challenge. In low-income countries, citizens have to pay a high percentage of health care themselves. On an economical basis, the diseases lead to a loss of productivity and a decrease in economic growth.⁴ Hence, significant costs caused by unproductivity, invalidity and early death arise.

Quoting the European Commission: “Non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes, represent major causes of disability, ill-health, health-related retirement, and premature death in the EU, resulting in considerable social and economic costs. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), every year in the EU, approximately 550.000 people of working age die prematurely from non-communicable diseases. As the leading cause of mortality in the EU, they account for most healthcare expenses, costing EU economies €115 billion, or 0.8% of GDP annually.”⁵

The United Nations Secretary-General has initiated a task force called “United Nations Interagency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases” (UNIATF) in 2013, which lead to impacts against the sugar industry.⁶ In Europe as well, different organizations have been implemented, such as “EUDWG”, “EURADIA” and the European coalition for diabetes (ECD)⁷.

A sick society has no future. Nevertheless, diseases as the ones mentioned above are largely avoidable. It seems a “war”⁸ has broken out between both nutrition systems – between the traditional one with “real food” versus big companies such as Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s, Danone, Unilever with their billion-dollar marketing budgets on the other side.⁹ Considering the figures until now, it seems that those big food companies are winning the battle – thanks to the low prices of their products.

Consequently, not just in Germany, people are spending more money on diseases than on food.¹⁰ It is an obvious question whether there is a connection between cheap, ultra-processed food and expensive health consequences¹¹. On the other hand, growth rates in the health industry are continuously increasing;¹² not only in terms of sales as well as values of pharma industries but also considering the health economy as a labor market sector.¹³ Even in bad stock market years, pharma companies are considered as safe investments.¹⁴

1.1 Problem statement

This led to the question whether society is being protected from food that is making it sick; particularly whether if people are protected by the politics. A third question that arose was how the people – the consumers – are seen in general from a company’s and from the politicians’ point of view. This is a general question asked based on the topic of food, sugar and a correlation between diseases and the prosperity of states. The question how the consumer is seen affects many other topics aside from food choices and possibilities of diseases. It is related to democracy, marketing and money.

Does a responsible, accountable consumer exist? Who is taking his own decisions and who is influenced without noticing it, possibly with dire consequences? Which role do companies, politicians and science play?

1.2 Target setting

Which role does politics play? On what must be placed on a specific emphasis?

Exemplary for the different topics that are related to consumers and their protection and responsibility, I will take a closer look at the backgrounds of “Big Food and Big Pharma” in particular.

2 Big Food and Big Pharma and their connection to politics

“Big Food and Big Pharma” – and the sugar industry – can be taken as examples for large industries with complex systems, which are opaque for the end consumer.

Food safety (in German “Lebensmittelsicherheit”¹⁵ ) is, from todays view, an outdated term. It is regarded to be merely about contaminations, viruses, bacteria and about pollutants. Secure food means just the non-existence of pathogenic bacteria, viruses or chemical contaminations.

Nowadays, the offer of products that are ultra-processed is extremely high all over the world: Fast Food, convenience food, soft drinks, sugar and chemicals, provided by an industrial system with farms and plantations spread all over the world. Chemicals industries and pharmaceutical companies are delivering the ingredients. Some of those products are destined to be over-consumed and are meant to be addicting.¹⁶ “Today’s food systems are broken and do not deliver nutritious, safe, affordable, and sustainable diets; worse, they undermine nutrition in several ways, particularly for vulnerable and marginalized populations. Good nutrition – particularly in the 1000 days from conception to a child’s second birthday – is critical but aggressive marketing of formula and baby foods compromise breastfeeding and feeding practices in early childhood.”¹⁷ Furthermore, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) states billions of dollars are spent annually marketing foods high in calories, fats, sugars, and salt, and intake has increased globally, including in low-income countries. The prevalence of adult obesity has nearly tripled since 1975. In 2014, 42 million people were affected by diabetes, up from 108 million in 1980.¹⁸

Under the guidance of professor Carlos Monteiro, University of Sao Paolo, a group of nutritionists has been established which designed a system for declaration of articles (NOVA-classification) The group says the following: “Avoid ultra-processed foods”.¹⁹ Chemicals that are typically not used in a kitchen for preparing food can count as alarm signals, for example phosphates²⁰.

Historically, the sugar industry and politics work hand in hand. King Ludwig XV exchanged Canada for some smaller sugar islands in the Caribbean.²¹ Around 1560, King Philipp II used the incoming taxes from sugar for building the palaces in Madrid and Toledo. Finally, Friedrich Wilhelm III decreed that in the vicinity of all sugar factories on Prussian ground, sugar beet had to be planted. The National Gallery of British Art in London was renamed in 1932 after sugar magnate Henry Tate of Tate & Lyle, who had laid the foundations for the collection.²² Also in London, Europe’s largest sugar company resides: Südzucker²³. Another organization which is based in London and belongs to the sugar industry is the International Sugar Organization (ISO)²⁴ whose aim is promoting trade with sugar worldwide.²⁵ Members of the ISO are the European Union and 83 additional states. Those countries represent 95 percent of the world sugar export.²⁶ Dr. Peter Baron, now retired, ran the ISO from 1994 and earlier he took the office of Federal Ministry of Food Agriculture & Consumer Protection. The former director answered the question whether governmental efforts to discourage sugar consumption made sense stating that “this is all artificial drama, if you ask me. People don’t care too much about it. People just love sugar”.

Branca, F.; Lartey, A.; Oenema, V.; Aguayo, G.; A Stordalen, G; Richardson, R; Arvelo, M; A. Afshin, Transforming the food system to fight non-communicable diseases, in: BMJ, 364:I29628.01.2019, https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l296.

"A CLOSER LOOK: The Implementation of Taxation on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages by the Government of Barbados - A CIVIL SOCIETY PERSPECTIVE" (PDF). July 2016. Retrieved 2017-12-05 (accessed on 27.12.2020); NCD Alliance, Support to the Barbados tax on sugary drinks, 25.01.2017, "Support to the Barbados tax on sugary drinks | NCD Alliance". ncdalliance.org. Retrieved 2017-12-05 (accessed on 27.12.2020); Times of Oman, Health, “Oman plan to raise tax on “harmful products’ his year”, 05.12.2017, "Oman plan to raise tax on 'harmful products' this year". (accessed on 27.12.2020);

Times of Oman, Health, “Oman proposes 50% excise tax on fizzy drinks”, 05.12.2017, "Oman proposes 50% excise tax on fizzy drinks". (accessed on 27.12.2020);

World Health Organization, South-East Asia, “Seeing Red: How Sri Lanka is striving to stop NCDs”, 05.12.2017, "Seeing Red: How Sri Lanka is striving to stop NCDs". (28.12.2020);

"SRI LANKA'S SUCCESS: ENSURING AFFORDABLE ESSENTIAL MEDICINES FOR ALL" (PDF). Retrieved 2017-12-05; Sri Lanka Brief, Sugar in Food Drinks: Labels That Hide The Poison, 10.08.2016, "Sugar in Food Drinks: Labels That Hide The Poison | Sri Lanka Brief". srilankabrief.org. (28.12.2020).

Branca, F.; Lartey, A.; Oenema, V.; Aguayo, G.; A Stordalen, G; Richardson, R; Arvelo, M; A. Afshin, Transforming the food system to fight non-communicable diseases, in: BMJ, 364:I29628.01.2019, https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l296.

British Medical Journal, “Time to stop commercial distortion of healthcare evidence and practice, experts urge”, 03.12.2019, https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/time-to-stop-commercial-distortion-of-healthcare-evidence-and-practice-experts-urge/ (02.01.2021).

NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC), “Worldwide trends in body-mass index, underweight, overweight, and obesity from 1975 to 2016: a pooled analysis of 2416 population-based measurement studies in 128.9 million children, adolescents, and adults, The Lancet, 16.12.2017, https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)32129-3/fulltext;

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¹ https://www.lebensmittelverband.de/de/lebensmittel/reihe-lebensmittelmythen/lmfakten-4-ohne-kuenstliche-aromastoffe (accessed on 28.12.020).

² https://www.euro.who.int/de/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases/pages/news/news/2011/11/diabetes-epidemic-in-europe (accessed on 28.12.2020).

³ https://www.euro.who.int/de/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases/pages/news/news/2011/11/diabetes-epidemic-in-europe (accessed on 28.12.2020).

⁴ https://www.euro.who.int/de/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases/pages/news/news/2011/11/diabetes-epidemic-in-europe (accessed on 28.12.2020);

⁵ European Commission, https://ec.europa.eu/health/non_communicable_diseases/overview_en (accessed on 02.01.2021).

⁶ United Nations Human Rights Office of the high Commissioner, Non-communicable-Diseases, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/ESCR/Pages/NoncommunicableDisesases.aspx (accessed on 27.12.2020;

⁷ https://www.ecdiabetes.eu/.

⁸ Jacobs, Andrew, In Sweeting War on Obesity, Chile Slays Tony the Tiger, in: New York Times, 07.02.2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/health/obesity-chile-sugar-regulations.html (accessed on 27.12.2020).

⁹ Grimm, H.-U., Food War, S. 8, Droemer HC, 02.03.2020.

¹⁰ Grimm, H.-U., Food War, S. 9, Droemer HC, 02.03.2020.

¹¹ Aguayo-Patrón, S., Calderón de la Barca, A., “Old Fashioned vs. Ultra-Processed-Based Current Diets: Possible Implication in the Increased Susceptibility to Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease in Childhood”, in: Foods, 15.11.2017, 6 (11);

¹² Gasche, U.; Guggenbühl, H., Schluss mit dem Wachstumswahn – Plädoyer for eine Umkehr, S. 126, Rüegger, 2010; IWD Der Informationsdienst des Instituts der deutschen Wirtschaft, „Krankenstand in Deutschland steigt“, 16.01.2020, https://www.iwd.de/artikel/krankenstand-in-deutschland-steigt-456309/ (27.12.2020);

¹³ (in this case Germany has been taken as an example and the figures are based on Germany) Bundesministerium für Gesundheit, Gesundheitswirtschaft als Jobmotor, 05.01.2021, https://www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de/themen/gesundheitswesen/gesundheitswirtschaft/gesundheitswirtschaft-als-jobmotor.html; https://www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de/themen/gesundheitswesen/gesundheitswirtschaft/bedeutunb-der-gesundheitswirtschaft.html#:~:text=Die%20Bruttowertsch%C3%B6pfung%20im%20Kernbereich%20der,Euro%20(Prognose).&text=Mit%20einem%20Wachstum%20von%20j%C3%A4hrlich,GesundheitswirtsGesun%20Fakten%20%26%20Zahlen%202018) (accessed on 10.01.2021).

¹⁴ Gasche, U.; Guggenbühl, H., Schluss mit dem Wachstumswahn – Plädoyer for eine Umkehr, S. 126, Rüegger, 2010.

¹⁵ Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft, Lebensmittelsicherheit , https://www.bmel.de/DE/themen/verbraucherschutz/lebensmittelsicherheit/lebensmittelsicherheit_node.html (accessed on 05.01.2021).

¹⁶ Monteiro, C. A. et al, “Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify them”, Public Health Nutrition, 22.04.2019.

¹⁷ Branca, F.; Lartey, A.; Oenema, V.; Aguayo, G.; A Stordalen, G; Richardson, R; Arvelo, M; A. Afshin, Transforming the food system to fight non-communicable diseases, BMJ, 364:I29628.01.2019, https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l296.

¹⁸ Branca, F.; Lartey, A.; Oenema, V.; Aguayo, G.; A Stordalen, G; Richardson, R; Arvelo, M; A. Afshin, Transforming the food system to fight non-communicable diseases, BMJ, 364:I29628.01.2019, https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l296; World Health Organization, Obesity and Overweight, 01.04.2020, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight (accessed on 17.12.2020); World Health Organization, Diabetes, 08.06.2020, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diabetes.

¹⁹ Monteiro, C. A. et al, “Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify them”, in: Public Health Nutrition, 22.04.2019, 89-99.

²⁰ Ritz E. et al, Gesundheitsrisiko durch Phosphatzusätze in Nahrungsmitteln Phosphate Additives in Food – a Health Risk, Deutsches Ärzteblatt Int 2012; 109(4): 49-55.

²¹ Guadeloupe, Santa Lucia and Martinique.

²² https://www.tate.org.uk/about-us/governance.

²³ https://www.edfman.com/company-information; https://www.suedzucker.de/de/presse/suedzucker-erhoeht-anteil-edf-man.

²⁴ https://www.isosugar.org/.

²⁵ Zitat: “Die ISO ist das einzige weltweite Forum für den Meinungsaustausch zwischen Zuckererzeuger- und -verbraucherländern auf zwischenstaatlicher Ebene. Wichtige Ziele des Übereinkommens sind die Förderung der Weltzuckerwirtschaft, Verbesserung der Markttransparenz, um den Handel auf dem Weltmarkt für Zucker und andere alternative Süßstoffe durch Marktanalysen und Bereitstellung von statistischen Informationen zu erleichtern, sowie die Förderung der Zuckernachfrage insbesondere für alternative Verwendungen.“, Bundestagsdrucksache 16/10760, 24.10.2008, S. 5.

²⁶ Bundestagsdrucksache 16/10760, 24.10.2008, S. 5.