What' s on the United Nation's plate this week in NYC?

Doubt the United Nation's will solve the world's problems in two days, but thankfully they have diet and disease on their plate!

Saw President Obama's motorcade as it whizzed through the city and "frozen zones" were created.  Complete with sharp shooters on rooftops, pedestrians behind barricades, and street traffic closed.  New Yorker's were grumbling why can't  they hold the UN General Assembly on a remote island?  And, why does the president have to stay overnight?

Anyway, on my way back from a meeting in NYC and wanted to share an excerpt of this terrific post on  Fooducate about the United Nation's discussing diet and diseases.

Excerpt from Fooducate - Eat a bit better:

United Nations. In New York today and tomorrow, The United Nations is hosting global leaders for a High-Level Meeting on Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs). Unlike contagious disease and plagues, these diseases are totally preventable at the personal level. The 4 NCDs are:

1. cardiovascular diseases
2. diabetes
3. cancers
4. chronic respiratory diseases

The first 3 diseases are food related, and the last is smoking related. With global diabetes rates soaring (up from 30M in 1985 to 366M in 2011), governments must step up to the challenge by making sure consumers have access to cheap healthy food. Incentives and subsidies to farmers and manufacturers must be aligned to make this happen( hint: US Farm Bill).

Will be interesting to see what the UN comes up with. Usually we don’t expect much to come from this (unfortunately) toothless organization. As Prof Marion Nestle reminds us:

In 2004, the U.N. caved in to pressures from food companies and weakened its guidelines and recommendations.  The health situation is worse now and affects people in developing as well as industrialized countries.  Let’s hope the General Assembly puts health above politics this time.

Fooducate - Eat a bit better