Philip James
Biography
Philip James is the head of a key advisory group that helped shape the World Health Organization's (WHO) anti-obesity plan, the initial draft of which was rejected by the U.S. government because it pushed for "fat taxes," while "lacking" the "notion of personal responsibility." James' International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) says its mission "is to inform the world about the urgency of the [obesity] problem and to persuade governments that the time to act is now."That job is easier when you can redefine the terms. James claims to have been instrumental in helping re-define "overweight" in the U.S., a 1998 move that made more than 30 million Americans "overweight" overnight. James was a prominent speaker at the 2003 Public Health Advocacy Institute conference "intended to encourage and support litigation against the food industry," and at a "Keep Big Food Out Of Britain" gathering. Of course, that's not surprising, since he believes that educational campaigns focused primarily on promoting better diet and exercise habits are "rubbish," and that government "needs to lay down legislation to govern what we are eating."
James would replace parents with big government, from conception to schoolyard. "With so many mothers working," James told the 2003 PHAI conference, "I think maybe we need to highlight the role of the 'Nanny State.'" Weighing in on obesity during pregnancy, he warned that if women aren't careful they'll create a "megababy." James also argues for restrictions on advertising certain foods to children by claiming that "the idea that you can have a modified system, or that parents should control it, is nonsense."
And his vision for school children doesn't get much brighter, as one paper noted that James was among several "experts" calling for new menus "based on the old-fashioned fare" of the wartime 1940s. If James had his way, the paper reported, "foods like Spam fritters, toad-in-the-hole, pink custard and semolina could be on their way back."
The American government was hardly the only one to express concern about James' WHO report. As James admitted to the Associated Press, "many of the developing country ministers believe" that obesity-related problems are "not really an issue for them compared with the agonies of malnutrition and HIV." In fact, James was told that 40 ambassadors complained to the WHO that he "was damaging the economy of the developing world."
James told one British paper that "evidence is so compelling that we must now act rapidly" to fight the supposed epidemic of fatness. But IOTF's own literature admits that resistance to its efforts is in part due to "the small evidence base that exists for obesity prevention."
A lack of good proof doesn't stop James, or the disciples he hopes to mold. When confronted by detractors, James replied: "Why don't they sort of sit back and realize that the world's best scientists have gone through this?" Making sure his definition of a top obesity expert carries disproportionate weight, IOTF announced in May 2004 that it would "launch a professional certification program." Marshalling this prospective army of anti-obesity Mini-Me's, James intoned: "We are now on the move."
An IOTF pamphlet acknowledges such a "move" was "made possible by generous support from Abbot Laboratories and F. Hoffmann-La Roche LTD." These companies manufacture weight-loss pills, and they hope to increase their market by funding groups that hype the health problems connected to obesity.
James and his IOTF have extensive ties to pharmaceutical companies. Britain's Social Issues Research Center reports James was "the lead researcher in trials of sibutramine, a weight-loss drug manufactured by the Knoll Pharmaceutical Company, and orlistat (Xenical) made by Roche, and is regularly engaged in what can only be described as PR activities for Roche." IOTF, according to its own documents, lists "educational grants" the group has received from Hoffman-La Roche, BASF Knoll, and Servier (the manufacturer of the weight-loss drug Redux).
IOTF is itself a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical industry-backed International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO), the epicenter of the obesity propaganda shockwave. IASO publishes the International Journal of Obesity, which is edited by pharmaceutical friend and American Obesity Association president Richard Atkinson (whose own company peddles kits, retailing at about $125, to test for an obesity "virus").
Associated Organizations and Foundations
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