“4 million diabetics: and you?” is the name of a documentary on diabetes, broadcast on France 5 on Tuesday evening. It zooms in on Guadeloupe, where the prevalence of the disease is particularly high. In this territory, as elsewhere in Overseas, the products are too sweet, more so than in France, despite the Lurel law. Senator Victorin Lurel denounces: controls are insufficient; he regrets that the economy has taken precedence over health.
The audiovisual production house “June 17 Media” and France Télévisions are at the origin of a health survey entitled “4 million diabetics: and you?“. This documentary is by Charles Behr; broadcast on France 5, Tuesday evening (November 19, 2024), it was followed by a debate.
Part of this production was filmed in Guadeloupe.
It turns out that in overseas territories, processed foods contain more added sugar than in France. An example: a can of soda contained 14g of added sugar in the West Indies, compared to 10g across the Atlantic, we noted in 2013.
More than 10 years later, doubts remain as to the sustainability of these differences; for some observers, products marketed overseas remain sweeter.
However, we know that this ingredient is harmful to health; it exposes populations to diabetes. The prevalence of the disease is also a reality in Guadeloupe.
However, there is a legislative measure, aimed in particular at prohibiting the difference in sugar content in the composition of products, between overseas regions and mainland France: the Lurel law, published in the Official Journal on June 3, 2013.
Socialist senator Victorin Lurel, who was a deputy when he proposed his bill, believes that the study carried out by the General Directorate of Competition, Consumption and Fraud Repression (DGCCRF), to monitor the correct application of the Lurel law, is not thorough enough. The corresponding report dates back to 2021.
The DGCCRF only visited 28 companies, in 5 countries: Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana, Réunion, Mayotte. 28 establishments. I challenged the sampling, saying that it is not representative at all (…). My feeling is that sworn officers should have more control.
Victorin Lurel, senator of Guadeloupe
In the end, the conclusion was that the law is “overall well respected“. The number of non-compliances was only marginal, according to the state service.
Victorin Lurel does not share this opinion. The controls, in his point of view, are not sufficiently appropriate, nor frequent enough, to ensure this.
It’s true that the text is complicated, because you have to take an average of the same products, sometimes made by the same companies or their subcontractors or their subsidiaries, to make comparisons. Today, this requires vigilance for concrete application of the law. It is useful; perhaps it needs to be improved. But the administration in charge of control must do its job!
Victorin Lurel, senator of Guadeloupe
It is urgent, according to Victorin Lurel, to deploy the necessary means to fight against what he describes as “epidemic“obesity, overweight and junk food, ills”endemic” in the archipelago and throughout the Overseas Territories.
But for the parliamentarian, who doubts an improvement, the economy has been prioritized, to the detriment of health. Sugar, which is a preservative, is added so that the products are edible for longer.
Yes, that’s the case, we can say it: it’s the capitalist market that wants that (…). Lobbyists came to oppose the law, notably the National Association of Agri-Food Industries (ANIA), which came to say: “No, you are going to kill an industry”.
Victorin Lurel, senator of Guadeloupe
The elected official calls for a strengthening of the control system and, in the event of deviations, for sanctions to be taken.
DOCUMENTARY: “4 million diabetics: and you?“
“France has more than 4 million diabetics and, among them, 600,000 people live with the disease without knowing it. Invisible, painless, diabetes advances masked. It often takes more than ten years for this excess blood sugar to be diagnosed. At this stage, complications are still serious. Junk food, sedentary lifestyle and excess weight, the risks are known. But consumers have been victims of an overdose of hidden sugars for years. How to defuse this time bomb? Part of the solution could well be found in a 100% natural remedy: physical activity“.
Duration: 1h47
Debate presented by Marina Carrère d’Encausse
Production house: “17 Juin Média” / France Télévisions
To see > by clicking here.
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