Burger chain McDonalds is to join forces with health experts to help write new policies on UK health as part of a plan to tackle obesity, alcohol and diet related diseases.

McDonalds are to help write UK health policy

Other companies are also in on the action such as: KFC (the makers of fried chicken), PepsiCo (who manufacture sugary drinks) and Unilever (who amongst other brands are responsible for pot noodle and Ben and Jerry).

Also getting involved are Mars (who make those chocolate covered caramel bars) and Diageo who are responsible for wines, spirits and beers such as Guinness.

So how are they getting involved in health policy, well five  “responsibility deal” networks have been set up whose members will include employees of the companies.  They have been invited to suggest measures to address public health.

Working alongside them will be consumer groups like CancerResearch UK and Which? (probably more the kind of people who you would expect to be involved in polices to tackle preventable health problems).

Wide range of people involved

So what do the Department of Health say about this decision? Well they told the Guardian that they’ll be engaging a wide range of people for the next white paper such as businesses and local government.

The problem people have is that white papers have the nation’s health as their best interest whilst industry had profit as their best interest.  I mean what could a company famous for selling fries and burgers have to say about tackling obesity?

There would be outrage if we asked Benson & Hedges and Marlboro to comment on smoking related diseases so why is this not being nationally condemned?

In my opinion the public have yet to see the effect problems such as obesity will be causing in the future because they have only seen the consequences on a small scale to date.