US government rejects WHO's attempts to improve diet

The US government has rejected a link between junk food and obesity in a confidential letter to the director general of the World Health Organization, Dr Lee Jong-wook.

The letter, from William Steiger, special assistant at the Department of Health and Human Services, has been leaked and is available on the internet. It is the United States's official response to an April 2003 report by WHO and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) which argued that added sugar should comprise no more than 10% of a healthy diet and that governments should take steps to limit children's exposure to the advertising …