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© 2003 British Nutrition Foundation
Nutrition Bulletin
,
28
, 1–2
1
Blackwell Science, LtdOxford, UKNBUNutrition Bulletin0141-96842003 British Nutrition Foundation
? 2003
28
?
Editorial
Tomorrow and tomorrowRobert Pickard
Correspondence
: Professor Robert Pickard, Director-General, British Nutrition Foundation, High Holborn House, 52–54 High Holborn, London WC1V 6RQ, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
EDITORIAL
Tomorrow and tomorrow
As Macbeth ‘
struts and frets his hour upon the stage
’, hebitterly contemplates the futility of an existence thatcannot learn from past events. Humankind still controlsits population level by war, disease and famine. Anindictment for an intelligent creature. Perhaps it is betterto be fortunate than wise. Darwin tells us that ‘
It is notthe strongest of the species that survive, nor the mostintelligent, but the ones most responsive to change
’.On 5 December 2002 in London, Her Royal Highness
The Princess Royal opened a conference chaired by theBritish Nutrition Foundation and Save the Childrenwhich dealt with the problems of nutrition on the bread-line. Even in the UK, there are localities where 81% ofchildren live in poverty. Just as with the internationaltragedies that daily flicker across our magic lanterns, wecan only conclude that there is no political will to rightwrongs and redress inequalities. If we were engaged in awar with an external enemy, everyone would ask, ‘Whatcan I do in my own walk of life to contribute to the wareffort?’. There would be a national strategy that everycitizen could align with and all government departmentswould have to relate their own plans to. There would bereal progress. With poverty, the enemy is within and allthe more dangerous because of this.
In the poorer economies of the world, poverty stillwalks hand in hand with malnutrition and deficiencydisease; in the wealthier economies, it walks with obe-sity, cardiovascular disease and cancer. This autumn, wehave seen the latest coronary heart disease statisticsfrom the National Heart Forum (McPherson
et al
.2002) and the British Heart Foundation (Petersen &Rayner 2002). The annual economic cost of this diseaseto the UK is put at £7 billion when the lost productive
value of several hundred thousand carers is added to thedirect costs borne by the health services and the patients,themselves. The Department of Health (2002a,b) hasreviewed the Welfare Food Scheme and produced itsHealthy Start guidance for children but the recentNational Diet and Nutrition Survey results do nothingto dispel the view that inequalities between rich andpoor are increasing (Henderson
et al
. 2002). No indi-vidual government department can fight this war inisolation: we need a national plan and a national com-mitment from every citizen.
On 28 October 2002, the Cabinet of the WelshAssembly Government endorsed the first NationalNutrition Strategy for Wales compiled by the Food Stan-dards Agency Wales (2002) in close collaboration withall the other departments and social agencies with aninterest in diet, health and lifestyle. In the subsequentplenary debate, the Strategy received all-party endorse-ment and will be launched in the spring of 2003. If bestpractice can be identified in Wales and Scotland, wherethe Scottish Diet Action Plan has been in existence forseveral years (The Scottish Office, 1996), there will be areal opportunity to establish a National Strategy for theUK, as a whole.
Nature is not benign. The universe in which we live isimpassive and without intrinsic values. It knows neitherlove nor compassion; it recognises neither justice nordignity. But we do and we can give these values meaningin our brief window of time and space. We can if wechoose to make it so.
Robert PickardDirector-General, British Nutrition Foundation
References
Department of Health (2002a)
Scientific Review of the Welfare Food Scheme
. The Stationery Office, London. Report on Health and Social Subjects no. 51.
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Robert Pickard
© 2003 British Nutrition Foundation
Nutrition Bulletin
,
28
, 1–2
Department of Health (2002b)
Healthy Start
. Department of Health, London.
Food Standards Agency Wales (2002)
Nutrition Strategy for Wales – Consultation Document
. Welsh Assembly Government, Cardiff.Henderson
L, Gregory
J & Swan
G (2002)
The National Diet and Nutrition Survey: adults aged 19 to 64 years
. The Stationery Office, London.
McPherson
K, Britton
A & Causer
L (2002)
Coronary heart disease
. National Heart Forum, The Stationery Office, London.
Petersen
S & Rayner
M (2002)
Coronary Heart Disease Statistics
. British Heart Foundation, London.
The Scottish Office (1996)
Eating for health: a diet action plan for Scotland
. The Scottish Office. Department of Health, Edinburgh.
