Physicians want ‘fat tax’ on high-calorie food

Liver experts at a scientific seminar have suggested that the government should impose a “fat tax” on high-calorie foods and beverages to reduce their consumption as about 4.5 crore people in Bangladesh are suffering from fatty liver disease.

One in three people suffers from this disease and about 10 million people are at risk of liver cirrhosis or liver cancer, they said.

They also called for using legislation to ensure that the food industry improves the composition (reformulation) of processed foods (e.g., reducing trans and saturated fats, sugar and salt contents).

The seminar and an awareness campaign was organised by the Hepatology Society at CIRDAP in Dhaka on Wednesday on the occasion of International NASH Day, which falls on Thursday.

The experts stressed promoting water consumption instead of soft drinks by making drinking water more accessible to children and adults in public facilities, including parks, playgrounds, schools and worksites.

They called for mandatory nutritional labelling on packets of food, as well as labelling of calories on menus of fast-food restaurants.

They opined that primary care practitioners should also be educated on the high prevalence of fatty liver in the general population and the potential liver-related morbidities, emphasising the importance of detecting NASH cases in high-risk groups such as obese and diabetic.

The experts said fatty liver and NASH can be easily prevented by changing the diet and lifestyle and losing weight.

Former caretaker government health adviser Maj Gen (retd) Professor ASM Matiur Rahman attended the seminar as chief guest, icddr,b Executive Director Tahmid Ahmed as special guest while Hepatology Society President Professor Mobin Khan chaired the event.

Professor Ajay K Duseja, secretary of the Indian National Association for the Study of Liver, and Jeff Mclntyre, director of NASH Programs at Global Liver Institute, also joined the seminar virtually.

They said that deaths from liver diseases are being viewed as a serious public health problem across the world.

According to the World Health Organization, liver disease accounts for 2.62 per cent of all deaths in Bangladesh, particularly from liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.

A leading source of these two particular diseases is liver inflammation and damage caused by the fat deposits in the liver, the experts told the seminar. In medical science, inflammation of the liver due to the accumulation of excess fat is called steatohepatitis.

What follows is nonalcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH, an aggressive form of fatty liver disease, they added. In the undiagnosed and uncontrolled situation, the fatty liver begins to move dangerously towards the state of NASH.

The disease is directly linked to heart disease, diabetes and a decrease in the effectiveness of insulin hormones in the human body, said the physicians. The prevalence of this disease is increasing at an alarming rate in Bangladesh and worldwide.

Like other countries in the world, the fifth International NASH Day will be observed in Bangladesh today.