I confess that the title of this article, is heavy enough to make me feel bad …
I know that once again, I’m not going to make friends, that I am going to shock, and to be considered as a nutcase, but for the past 20 years, I’m dedicated to this task, and for the past 20 years I have shocked a lot of people writing about those topics that grip me and hurt me, so I will therefore continue, and I will not stop, I’m here for that reason …
But I just watched a documentary from 2017, on France O, »Investigations », entitled « Obesity, the war is declared … » Very interesting documentary, unfortunately with a wrong title, as dear parents, the war against obesity is still not declared!
As a good example, the Polynesian Minister of Health, Mr. Jacques Raynal, does not seem to care much about the scary figures of obesity among the Polynesians children, when it appears to me as a tragedy. Aggressive with the journalist, pathetic and cold for being a Health minister, Mr Raynal chooses to favor the business of local food industries instead : According to him, the food industry can’t export much, so they are producing a local cola, sweeter than the American cola, without respecting the European standards of sugar allowed per bottle, in short .. it is a drama.
I can’t help myself remembering my dear Professor Nagati, my mentor, one of the leading African specialists of diabetes and obesity. This extraordinary doctor and human being, devoted heart and soul to his fellow-citizens, was the co-founder of the Institute of Nutrition in Tunis for whom I worked. Every day, he offered himself entirely to the hordes of very sick people, invading the institute with their deep sufferings. Coming from all the most remote areas of the country all the way to Tunis, to get treated of the diabetes which is eating them alive … In summer, Professor Nagati was financing summer camps for diabetic children and teens, where he spent all his holidays, in order to comfort them, educate them, and teach them about their conditions, and how to live a better life with their illness … And when he was not teaching students or traveling abroad on conventions, my dear Professor, was spending his so precious and rare free time, writing to local manufacturers and producers, begging them to respect European sugar quotas. He took me to Danone production plant, one day to show me reality behind the scenes, Danone who locally in Tunisia, was adding more sugar in yogurts than in France, because according to them, it was more appropriate to the taste of Tunisians … Assassins …
But as rightly said, in the second part of the documentary, by a New Zealand representative of the nutrition committee, it is also the responsibility of the parents, and individually, our free will does not oblige us to drink these disgusting sodas per liter, or even daring ( as shown in the doc) to fill up baby bottles with it…
Yet it is the sad reality, and beyond the drama of obesity, you will discover towards the end of documentary, 2 or 3 years old children, with devastated teeth because of the sugar contained in the sodas, who are paralyzing each day by the hundreds, anesthesia rooms across the country, to have their rotten teeth removed. It’s just unbearable, because these children will have to wear dentures throughout their lives, and not only will it require high dental expenses and surgical care, but they will be disabled for a lifetime.
No need to talk about amputations of diabetic gangrene , or asthmatic, respiratory and cardiac problems, skin problems, hyper-tension or stature problems those children are also facing. No point talking about children who have never seen their mother cooking, and who eat fries at 7 in the morning as an healthy start of the day. No point either exposing the psychological effects that these poor children has to bear, being bullied or mocked.. And no need to mention how they suffer in their little bodies, saturated with sugar and soaked with fat…This has to stop…