The College ™s response, which includes for the first time comments from the RCP Patient and Carer Network, covers smoking, alcohol, obesity, sexual health and inequalities in health, looking in detail at short- and long-term objectives; policies necessary to stem the tide of illness and support preventive health; and the organisational facilities needed.

The College has identified several factors that the various health risks have in common with each other in terms of the challenges facing Government, industry, health professionals and society:

All disproportionately affect the vulnerable in society, the young, the deprived and the disadvantaged All require more socially responsible approaches to the advertising, marketing and promotion of products, which, if used at all in the case of tobacco, or unwisely in the case of alcohol and diet, cause ill-health and premature death Premature death and ill-health from the above causes are preventable, and could be significantly reduced by public education and health promotion to encourage healthy behaviours All form a substantial cost to society, not just through the costs to the NHS, but also in terms of wider costs to society such as lost production, costs to social services, and reductions in quality of life All have implications for the training and education of health professionals and their practice

The response identifies clear actions and measures that should be taken to address these challenges. RCP President Professor Carol Black said: The evidence supporting the need for action is beyond dispute. These are major public health issues of our time. We look to Government to lead.

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There is also a growing need to educate consumers regarding saturated or trans-fats. To address this issue, the FDA has announced regulations that enforce mandatory labeling of food products containing trans-fats.

Labeling laws create a more educated consumer who has the opportunity to turn to healthier alternatives such as olive oil and make informed decisions after considering the inherent risks in certain foods, says Naidu.

The labeling legislations also serve as a wake-up call to the food manufacturers to reexamine and even reformulate their ingredients. It simultaneously offers a good market opportunity for healthy oils and fats, resulting in the search for new or altered processing methods and alternative fats and oils ingredients.

Following this trend, the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has discovered new breeds of corn to create cooking oils and margarine that lower blood cholesterol. Another new blend of cooking oils has the potential to heighten the metabolic rate in humans, thereby lowering cholesterol level by about 13 percent.

Margarine spreads containing natural plant sterols are formulated in such a way that they contain less cholesterol-raising saturated fat and more cholesterol-reducing polyunsaturated fat and could also reduce cholesterol almost up to 10 percent within three weeks, concludes Nadkarny.

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