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© 2009 Verner Wheelock Associates Limited

St Andrews ASSIST CONFERENCE 2009 Thursday 27 August Nutritional Analysis of Foods: Why it’s Wrong Dr Verner Wheelock. © 2009 Verner Wheelock Associates Limited. © 2008 Verner Wheelock Associates Limited. Rationale for Nutrient-Based Standards.

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© 2009 Verner Wheelock Associates Limited

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  1. St Andrews • ASSIST CONFERENCE 2009 • Thursday 27 August • Nutritional Analysis of Foods: Why it’s Wrong • Dr Verner Wheelock © 2009 Verner Wheelock Associates Limited

  2. © 2008 Verner Wheelock Associates Limited

  3. Rationale for Nutrient-Based Standards Children are unhealthy and therefore their diet needs to be improved by controlling the nutritional content of the food served in schools.

  4. DRV Report

  5. Dietary Reference Values (1) For most nutrients the Panel found: ‘’…..insufficient data to establish any of these DRVs with great confidence. There are inherent errors in some of the data…’’

  6. Dietary Reference Values (2) ‘’The food composition tables normally used to determine nutrient intake from dietary records contain a number of assumptions and imperfections. ‘’

  7. Dietary Reference Values (3) ‘’…there is uncertainty about the relevance of many biological markers, such as serum concentrations of a nutrient, as evidence of an individual’s ‘status’ for that nutrient.’’

  8. SACN Report on Iron ‘’Although the DRVs are often regarded as gold standards, they are not soundly established since there were insufficient data for most nutrients.‘’ SACN: Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition

  9. SACN Report on Iron The DRVs for iron ”are based on limited data and few data have emerged since COMA considered DRVs for iron in 1991.” COMA: Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy

  10. SACN Report on Iron SACN concluded that……… “in actual fact there is little evidence to suggest that iron deficiency anaemia is widespread in the general population.” “The DRVs set for iron may be too high’’

  11. DRV Definitions Estimated Average Requirement (EAR)of a group of people for a nutrient. • About half will usually need more than the EAR, and half less The Reference Nutrient Intake (RNI)for protein or vitamin or mineral. • An amount of the nutrient that is enough, or more than enough, for about 97% of people in a group

  12. Comparison of EAR and RNI

  13. Consumption Data ‘’National Diet and Nutrition Survey. Young People Aged 4 to 18 years’’ Results from 2,672 young people living in private households conducted between January and December 1997

  14. Primary Schools The nutrient intake for 4-10 years as determined by the “National Diet and Nutrition Survey: Young people aged 4-18 years” expressed as a percentage of the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) and the Recommended Nutrient Intake (RNI) sourced in the DRV report. Max Min

  15. Secondary Schools The nutrient intake for 11-18 years as determined by the “National Diet and Nutrition Survey: Young people aged 4-18 years” expressed as a percentage of the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) and the Recommended Nutrient Intake (RNI). Max Min

  16. Selecting the Standards • EARs used for energy, fat and carbohydrates • RNIs used for minerals and vitamins

  17. How much of daily intake from lunch? for energy, protein and fibre for minerals and vitamins

  18. Comparison of Nutrient Standards Primary Schools

  19. Comparison of Nutrient Standards Secondary Schools

  20. Calculating Nutrient Content • For accurate information chemical analysis is essential • Standard values are APPROXIMATIONS

  21. Tolerances for Nutritional Labelling (1) For Protein, Fat, Carbohydrates (including sugars) and Dietary Fibre

  22. Tolerances for Nutritional Labelling (2) For Vitamins and Minerals (non-liquid foods) It would be unrealistic to expect caterers in schools, with limited resources, to improve on what is expected of the manufacturers.

  23. WHO Report “The quantitative definition of nutrient needs and efforts to express them as RNIs….. …… is commonly misapplied, however, and has led to considerable confusion among policy makers”

  24. In Particular • Technical terms incomprehensible to most people • Inadequate for developing nutrition education programmes • Ignores some critical factors

  25. Current thinking • World Health Organisation recommends their Food Based Dietary Guidelines

  26. Benefits of Food Based Guidelines • Foods make up diets • Nutrients interact differently when presented as foods • Good evidence of dietary patterns associated with good health • Non-nutrients which are beneficial

  27. Conclusions • Failure to appreciate the limitations and imperfections of the data used to derive the Nutrient-based Standards • No recognition of theinaccuraciesin standard data on the composition of food • No evidence that use of Nutrient-based Standards will improve the health of school children • Complying with the legislation is expensive and causes stress

  28. Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: A Cross-Government Strategy for England (March 08) “Britain is in the grip of an epidemic. Almost 2/3 of adults and 1/3 of children are either overweight or obese……These figures will rise to almost 9 in 10 adults and 2/3 of children by 2050.” “We are facing a public health problem that the experts have told us is comparable with climate change in both its scale and complexity”

  29. House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts on Child Obesity December 2006 “Obesity is a causal factor in a number of chronic diseases….. .….it reduces life expectancy by an average of 9 years”

  30. House of Commons Health Committee Report May 2004 “On some predictions, today’s generation of children will be the first for over a century for whom life expectancy falls” “We estimate the economic costs of obesity at £3.3 – 3.7 billion per year and obesity plus overweight at £6.6 – 6.7 billion.”

  31. Life Expectancy - UK

  32. Life Expectancy - Scotland

  33. Causes of DeathEngland and Wales Age-standardised mortality rates for selected broad disease groups, 1911-2003, England & Wales

  34. Mortality in ChildrenAged 1-14 (UK) Mortality (per 1000 population)

  35. Death RatesChildren – England & Wales Deaths per 1000 1998 - 2008

  36. Life Expectancy- ScotlandAge 15

  37. General Health Good/Very Good % Aged 1-15 Source: Health Survey, England

  38. Consumption of Fruit and Veg(5+ Portions ) Aged 1-15 % For all children, mean portion no. increased from 2.5 to 3.3

  39. Children Classified as “Obese”Aged 2-15 Source: Health Survey, England

  40. CONFLICT Obesity is increasing Health is improving

  41. Body Mass Index (BMI) WEIGHT, kg (HEIGHT, m)² BMI is used as an index of obesity

  42. Categories

  43. Examples of BMI

  44. BMI – Age 15 Source: Health Survey, England

  45. BMI - England Source: Health Survey, England 2007

  46. CDC Study USARelative Risks All

  47. CDC Study USARelative Risks Never Smoked

  48. CDC Study, USAExcess Deaths

  49. Actual Causes of Death in US, 2000

  50. Canada 2009

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