Of the deaths that occur each year in Mexico are related to diseases derived from the consumption of sugary drinks, highlighted the Undersecretary of Health, Hugo López Gatell. In the afternoon conference on Tuesday, July 21, he noted that this number of deaths is equivalent to the same number of deaths that Mexico currently accumulates due to COVID-19. “Right now we are very unfortunately reaching close to 40 thousand deaths from COVID (…) so far in the COVID epidemic, people die in Mexico every year attributable to the consumption of sugary drinks and that is just sugary drinks,” he said. He explained that Mexico is one of the few countries that has reduced its life expectancy at birth, among other factors due to the epidemic of overweight and diabetes. “So, the evidence is very clear,” she indicated.
He added that in Mexico 35% of children and adolescents are overweight and obese, while 75% of the Mexican population over 20 years of age, that is, three quarters of Mexicans, are overweight or obese. "There are interests that have led previous administrations to hide that information or to use euphemisms and say: 'Well, yes, but jump, jump, move and check yourself.'" He also criticized the difficulty in acquiring healthy and natural products, given the prevalence of convenience stores. “If I go America Cell Phone Number List out and what I see instead of fruits, vegetables, cereals, seeds, truly whole grain breads, instead what I see are these types of stores that are on the corners, some green and orange and others colored orange with red, because obviously it is very difficult, it is uphill for me to find a healthy product,” he said. Part of this information is included in an article that Dr. Ruy López Riadura, general director of the National Center for Preventive Programs and Disease Control, will present next Thursday during the Health conference, he anticipated. An analysis that, according to López Gatell, was published in a prestigious epidemiology journal at the end of last year and in which the number of deaths is analyzed and how many are attributed to the consumption of sugary drinks.
He detailed that 733 thousand people died in 2018, half died from something related to a poor diet in the form of diabetes or cardiovascular, neurovascular disease, chronic liver disease or cancer. Mexico still has a lot to do in this regard, he insisted, but “this implies many structural changes, it is not unusual for it to cause controversies, we do not want to offend anyone nor do we want to damage the economic part, the economic part is important, but we do want to change the reality and not have the consequences, including economic ones.” These statements come after the National Association of Producers of Soft Drinks and Carbonated Waters (ANPRAC) asked in a statement “not to stigmatize and have a respectful dialogue” towards the soft drink industry. “It is unprecedented that an official with the responsibility of López Gatell stigmatizes an industry that fully complies with all the rules and regulations in Mexico,” highlighted ANPRAC. He claimed that the official's statements are an inequitable treatment towards the sector, and demonize a strategic activity for the economy and a product that is in the preference of millions of Mexicans.