Le recent file of World on the major maneuvers of certain industrial and agricultural sectors to combat Nutri-score demonstrates, if need be, the extent to which information accessible to all based on scientific work without conflicts of interest constitutes a major challenge: a transparency issue for consumers, a prevention issue for public health professionals, and an economic issue for food manufacturers.
It should be remembered that the Nutri-score, in itself, is not an injunction. It provides, in a simple visual form, easy to understand by all, information on the overall nutritional quality of food, making it possible to direct consumers who so wish towards choices more favorable to their health. Let’s say it, if the Nutri-score is so often attacked by lobbies, despite all the scientific work demonstrating its interest and its effectiveness, it is because it is a source of reference information for the general public and that is the first step in behavior change.
But the fight for reliable and accessible information also concerns sectors other than nutrition, particularly alcohol. All public health professionals are fighting, in vain so far, to obtain the inscription of a sufficiently visible information pictogram on the containers of alcoholic beverages, in order to inform pregnant women of the risks of alcohol consumption. alcohol during pregnancy. The risk is disputed by no one – 8,000 handicaps at birth could be avoided each year – but the alcohol lobby refuses to do so. He refuses because he considers that better visibility of this information would damage the image of alcoholic beverages, especially wine. The defense of wine would be worth some handicaps that people and their families will have to assume for a lifetime.
Health professionals are also fighting to change the health message that must appear on bottles and cans, i.e. to replace ” Alcohol abuse is dangerous for health “ through “All alcohol consumption carries a health risk”, to be in line with scientific studies, all converging.
The taboo of alcohol
The consumption of alcohol is the great taboo of French society. Scientific information is drowned in a stream of considerations having nothing to do with health: the promotion of heritage, culture, gastronomy, which must necessarily be alcoholic.
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