BRAZIL: Sugar a Celebrity in Trade, Villain of Obesity

(RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 17, 2004)

The international offensive against refined sugar ”is foolishness based on erroneous science,” and could aggravate the trade protectionism that is already taking a toll on Brazil's sugar exports, says a Sao Paulo sugar industry executive.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that people should limit refined sugars to a maximum of 10 percent of the calories they consume each day.

Eduardo Pereira de Carvalho, president of the Sao Paulo Sugarcane Agroindustry Union (UNICA), begs to differ.

The WHO is drafting a Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health as a tool intended to help reverse the increasing incidence of chronic illness including cardiovascular disorders, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis and various types of cancer.

In 2001, these diseases were responsible for 59 percent of the 56.5 million deaths recorded worldwide.

The Global Strategy will be taken up by the WHO World Health Assembly, a gathering of the member states' health ministers, in Geneva, May 17-24. But loud opposition has already come from the United States and from major sugar exporters and food industry giants -- such as Coca-Cola and Nestlé -- whose products are based heavily on sugar.

The recommendation that people should limit daily intake of sugar, fats and sodium got a boost from a joint report from WHO and FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation), produced by an international team of experts and to be released officially in April.

But UNICA, which represents Brazil's biggest producers and exporters of sugar and alcohol, has scored one victory: the Brazilian government has so far opposed the WHO Global Strategy, appeasing the economic side of the Cabinet - the ministries of agriculture, industry, and trade.

The Health Ministry, meanwhile, is none too pleased. And national medical groups have protested. The Brazilian Endocrinology and Metabolism Society and the Brazilian Association of Obesity Studies (ABESO) are demanding that the government review its position on sugar in the diet.

”Health should come before sector-specific economic interests,” Mariana del Bosco Rodrigues, a nutrition expert from ABESO, told IPS.

But the UNICA president says there is no scientific proof that sugar is harmful to human health.

"Obesity is a complex issue, related to a series of things: food, the quantity consumed and amount of physical activity," Pereira de Carvalho said in an IPS interview.

Sugar is not the culprit "if one consumes a lot of soft drinks and sits immobile in front of the television," he said, stressing that what needs to be considered are people's eating habits, their income level, and the harm that could be caused by a change in diet.

The human body requires energy, and sugar is an inexpensive source, appropriate for poor countries like Brazil, said the UNICA chief.

Brazilian per capita sugar consumption is 53 kg a year, surpassed only by the United States, where it is 58 to 60 kg of sugar per year, if one includes corn syrup, ”which is the same as sugar,” he said.

The studies that guide the WHO Global Strategy have been conducted by experts from rich countries, and so do not take into account the different realities of the developing world, according to Pereira de Carvalho.

Furthermore, they might serve as a pretext to increase protectionist measures that are already excessive when it comes to world sugar trade, he said.

Sugar is not the only one to blame for obesity, but it has been proven that high sugar intake does contribute to obesity and other chronic and degenerative diseases caused by excess weight, responds ABESO expert Rodrigues.

As for the advantages of this cheap source of food energy, the nutritionist noted that Brazil is undergoing a nutrition transition, reflected in a sharp rise in obesity amongst children and in the poor population.

Chronic and degenerative diseases are already costing the health system more than malnutrition problems, she said.

ABESO statistics show that among Brazil's poorest 25 percent of women, obesity increased from 11.6 to 15 percent between 1989 and 1997. The problem among the wealthiest 25 percent of women, meanwhile, fell from 13.2 to 8.3 percent in that period.

Overall, 7.0 percent of men and 12.4 percent of women in Brazil were obese in 1997. But the overweight population, including those considered obese, was 39 percent of the total, which now reaches 174 million.

The nutritionist underscored that many Brazilian experts have participated in the formulation of the WHO Global Strategy, which is to be implemented in a flexible way, adapted to the needs and conditions of each country.

Thus sugar is expanding the controversy and debate that the WHO nutrition strategy has fomented around the globe.

Brazil, the world's leading sugar exporter, is working with other major producers, like Australia and Thailand, to break through the iron-clad barriers that numerous countries impose on imports of this commodity.

At the World Trade Organisation, Brazil is challenging the European Union's subsidies for its sugar exports and for sugar imports from African and Caribbean countries, in a battle that could have major global repercussions.

With exports of 12.9 million tonnes and revenues of 2.1 billion dollars last year, Brazil dominates a quarter of the world sugar market, and has the lowest production costs in the industry.

This is why Brazil stands to benefit the most from the eventual liberalisation of sugar trade, according to the World Bank, and why this South American giant opposes any pretext for maintaining or increasing sugar protectionism.