Regulation of food industry is needed to tackle obesity

Sir, – The HSE is considering whether to make the obesity drug Mounjaro available to people with obesity or at risk of obesity with co-morbidities. There is no mention of a single measure to regulate the food industry that has caused this epidemic.

The Lancet Commission on 21st century Global Threats to Health just published its report. What was the biggest threat so far? Obesity.

The lessons from many Latin American countries and the UK are that food policies like taxes on sugary drinks, bans on food advertising to children, front-of-pack warning labels and healthy school food policies can make a real difference to persistently high levels of obesity.

The Lancet Commission also reported that a scaled-up global coverage of GLP-1 agonist drugs, such as Mounjaro, to cover 50 per cent of eligible people, makes only a small difference in projected increases in obesity. The drugs are valuable for individuals, but at a population level their impact is small.

Obesity is the biggest contributor to loss of healthy life years, yet no political party has any policies to tackle this beyond the hot school dinners programme. This has to change. Have Irish politicians the gumption to take on the food industry?

DR CATHERINE CONLON,

Ballintemple,

Co Cork.