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Overweight and Obesity in Saudi Arabia
evaluated (Al-Hazzaa and AlMarzooqi 2018). Similar studies are needed to document and assess the impact of numerous public awareness campaigns related to obesity and healthy dietary patterns implemented in Saudi Arabia.
KEY LESSONS LEARNED FROM GLOBAL EXPERIENCES Building on global experience with obesity-related prevention policies, this section summarizes the four key lessons to consider for obesity-prevention efforts in Saudi Arabia to have a meaningful impact.
Preventing and managing the food and beverage industry’s conflict of interest Involving industry in nutrition-related policy development, design, and implementation process early on can have negative consequences. In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) signaled its recognition of this problem of large corporations’ potentially harmful roles in nutrition policy making in their draft Decision-Making Process and Tool (WHO 2017a). This tool is meant to assist governments in preventing and managing conflicts of interest in nutrition policy. While most WHO member states, nongovernmental organizations, and academic institutions strongly supported the tool, commercial sector organizations depicted it as inappropriate, unworkable, and incompatible with the Sustainable Development Goals (Lauber et al. 2020; Ralston et al. 2021). Managing the industry’s negative influence in nutrition policy will be challenging given the central role that food and beverage companies (particularly multi- or transnational companies) have in contemporary economies (Fooks and Godziewski 2020). However, with political will and commitment, this can be accomplished, and there are examples of mechanisms for doing so that have been adopted at regional, national, and global levels (Mialon et al. 2020). The main types of mechanisms include providing transparency; managing interactions with industry and conflicts of interest; identifying, monitoring, and educating about the practices of corporations and associated risks to public health; and prohibiting interactions with industry (Mialon et al. 2020).
Using global and regional momentum to gather support SSB taxes demonstrate the lead role that Saudi Arabia can play in influencing the health of not just Saudis but many GCC residents. This strong global momentum around SSB taxes, alongside other health taxes on tobacco and alcohol, may be aided by growing economic concerns due to COVID-19. However, the public’s acceptance of new taxes (even if health related) may be low, and politicians may be reluctant to enact new or stricter consumption taxes at this time. One way to increase support for health taxes would be to link health taxes with financing new healthy food incentive and/or support programs for the neediest. The tax levels also need to be high enough to elicit responses from consumers (by lowering their demand for the products) and manufacturers (which will lower the sugar content if the tax is based on sugar density). Front-of-package label policies, particularly mandatory warning labels, are also gaining strong momentum, especially since 2016, when Chile implemented the first phase of its food labeling and marketing law. In Latin America, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay have all passed or implemented mandatory warning forms of front-of-package labels. There is growing empirical evidence
