Improved food labelling could reduce cancer risk

The Cancer Council Australia supports Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott’s call for simpler and more prominent labelling of packaged foods to help warn people of the harmful effects of poor diet and overeating, as it has the potential to reduce the nation’s growing cancer burden.

Chair of the Cancer Council’s national Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee, Terry Slevin, said obesity and excess weight were an important cause of cancer and were the only area in public heath and disease prevention where Australia was going significantly backwards. Mr Slevin said more efforts were needed to give consumers better capacity to “manage their own weight”, but moves to make the healthy eating choices the easy eating choices would go even further toward addressing the burgeoning obesity problem. “The Minister for Health should be commended for promoting the link between public awareness, poor diet and disease, which many people do not realise is particularly relevant to cancer, the nation’s leading disease burden and the cause of the most deaths,” Mr Slevin said. “The evidence base around the link between cancer and obesity/overweight is expanding, with thousands of cancer deaths in Australia each year being attributed to poor diet and excess body weight. We welcome serious reform to improve the community’s level of understanding of the content of food products, particularly those that are packaged. “We would actively support a well researched program which effectively communicated the amount of energy contained in such products, both through labelling and other means. A program which also improved community understanding of energy needs of children and adults would be a helpful addition to such an initiative.” Mr Slevin said another vital initiative would be the establishment of an ongoing means of measuring nutritional and physical activity behaviour through a national survey.(Source: Cancer Council Australia: May 2006.)