The Bournvita Debate: Is shooting the messenger helpful?

India’s problems have arisen because of weak regulatory control over marketing. There is no clear definition of misleading marketing or of healthy or unhealthy food.

The recent controversy around a video that detailed Bournvita’s ingredients has gone viral and is in the news all over. The drink was trending on Twitter, more so after people thought that the company had gone terribly wrong in its approach to dealing with the whole issue by sending a legal notice asking the video’s creator to apologise and delete the video, which he politely did. By adding fuel to the fire, more people, including doctors and nutrition experts, are standing up in support of the creator.

Not A Standalone Episode

The underlying problem is related to what the government is doing on health claims and food labelling and this needs highlighting. This event is also an opportunity for the government to strengthen its regulatory approach by defining healthy and unhealthy foods, placing restrictions on the marketing of unhealthy products, and issuing health warnings on the unhealthy ones.

The company unnecessarily and unfairly targeted the person who made people aware of the risks and the factual nutrient and non-nutrient contents, the latter being chemicals in the form of colouring agents and emulsifiers. He did what the government ideally should have done, that is to alert people about risks to health from consuming high sugar diets.

What surprises me is the fact that while doing public service this “influencer” is at the receiving end of the company and the government is absolutely silent. I wonder if the company would send a legal notice to the government if they did alert people to the risk of unhealthy food products.

Claiming a product to be a “health drink” is more of a marketing strategy. As a public health professional, I can’t see any health in such products. And people spend so much money to buy such products with mostly sugar in them and all other unhealthy stuff.

On a related note, there are companies selling and marketing Rs 5 and Rs 10 sachets of so-called health drinks? Is it not an exploitation of the poor, targeting the bottom of pyramid marketing strategy?

Foods That Kill

Going by science, malted chocolate supplements are an ultra-processed food (UPF). UPFs are highly processed, then manufactured through changing the food matrix, stripping the fibre off, modifying and adding flavours, then introducing colouring and cosmetic additives to make them attractive and highly palatable. You can’t stop eating them. These are usually aggressively marketed, backed by huge budgets to create demand through health claims and endorsement by celebrities.

Gullible people believe such claims and buy and consume these products for themselves and their children, often daily, little realising that these could be harmful. There is enough scientific evidence present in the public domain pertaining to the negative impact of increasing consumption of UPFs on human health, which include several chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and depression.

The mechanisms by which they damage our bodies include alteration of satiety controls and metabolic pathways, high glycaemic load, deleterious nutrient profile and consumption of potentially harmful additives, leading to inflammation, even affecting helpful microbiomes. In India, more than 60 percent deaths are due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

It does not surprise me that 56 percent of 5-19 year-olds are having biomarkers of NCDs given such a huge junk food/drink push by big food companies. It is known that 10 percent increase in consuming ultra-processed foods leads to 15 percent more diabetes.

Marketing And Resisting

Aggressive marketing is responsible for increasing consumption of such unhealthy food products. Product sales are growing like a truck speeding downhill without brakes. Recently, the chief of a large multinational company making chocolates laid down his ambitious expansion strategy for India by seeking growth in consumption of its chocolates and bakery products across premium and low unit price segments. India contributes a significant chunk of this company’s global revenues through chocolate brands and various powdered beverages.

People, especially parents, ask me questions on various foods. What should be avoided? Can these products give immunity? Are these products’ claims to be healthy true? I tell them, avoid buying and eating a food product, which is advertised, since you will find it most likely to be ultra-processed and/or high in sugar/salt or fat as per the standards suggested by WHO or FSSAI.

Bold Governmental Action Needed

India’s problems have arisen because of weak regulatory control over marketing. There is no clear definition of misleading marketing or of healthy or unhealthy food. A criteria could be “Made in India” developed by the Government with the help of public health and nutrition scientists, NOT the food industry. Israel, a good friend of India, has shown us a process that can be easily followed.

The government has to take up the role of informing people which foods are healthy and which are not. Further, once it has established the criteria to alert the public, Parliament should consider a law to end marketing of all unhealthy food products. This will be of great help to the people of India and their health and for the government to showcase their achievements towards limiting obesity, diabetes and other NCDs.

Dr Arun Gupta is the Central Coordinator, Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India and Convener, Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.