As of January 1, 2020, food companies in Israel were required to mark products with high amounts of sugar, salt, or fat with a red sticker on the front of the product packaging, as part of a broader move aimed at improving the health of the public's diet.
Recently, the Chief Economist at the Ministry of Finance announced that there was a change in the market share of products with a red nutrition label and there was a shift from labeled products to non-labeled products in the amount of about 33 thousand tons per year.
In absolute terms, a decrease of about 0.6% was measured in the market share of these products.
This is definitely a positive development, but the road to the re-education of the market is long.
Unfortunately, within the new settlement law, we did not find a significant enough reference to this issue, which is not only health - but also economic.
What is the aggregate damage caused to the economy in Israel as a result of the consumption of unhealthy foods and why should the Minister of Finance mark this war as one of the significant tasks on his agenda?
We separately examined the causal relationship between the consumption of salt, sugar and other components harmful to the economy in Israel.
Take a moment to process this figure
About 50% of the food consumption among teenagers and about 35% among adults in Israel is from ultra-processed food, which is characterized by being high in salt, fat and sugar.
This is according to national health and nutrition status surveys in Israel, the data of which was published by the Ministry of Health as part of Nutrition and Nutritional Security Week.
As part of a position paper on the consumption of ultra-processed food and its effect on health that was recently published, a direct link was found between the consumption of ultra-processed food and overweight and obesity.
According to the researchers' assessment, the direct and indirect cost of obesity to the economy is approximately NIS 20 billion per year.
This calculation also includes indirect expenses that arise from diseases that get complicated, and increase the national expenditure on health.
10 billion reasons to consume pasta without salt
The average salt consumption in Israel is 9.6 grams per day, almost double the amount recommended for adults.
This is according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Health.
The main foods, which Israelis consume in huge quantities and increase sodium consumption are: bread, pasta, yellow cheese and chicken.
Countless studies have found a direct and clear connection between sodium consumption and a host of chronic diseases, including heart disease.
Recently, studies also indicate a connection between excess salt consumption and the onset of various autoimmune diseases.
Consuming pasta?
Please reduce the amount of salt (Photo: Nimrod Sanders)
And what about the damage to the economy?
According to estimates, it is about NIS 10 billion a year that is deducted from the state coffers due to dealing with the scope of the pathology.
Along with the aforementioned, there is room for consolation: slowly but surely, the public in Israel is removing the risk involved in consumption.
For example, in the consumption of pasta.
According to studies conducted, the average Israeli consumes about 4 kilos of pasta per year.
Reality shows that in recent years, there has been a decrease in the consumption of pasta made from durum flour or white flour, and an increase in the consumption of a healthy alternative: in the company 'Skinny Pasta' which produces various types of konjac noodles, which do not include a component of salt, sugar-free, gluten-free, they report A significant increase in the volume of sales.
At the same time as the example, major cheese suppliers in the economy also report a decrease in the volume of consumption of high-fat yellow cheeses and an increase in the volume of sales of cheeses with 5% fat.
Arteriosclerosis and damage to the economic oxygen pipeline
In 2022, atherosclerosis is one of the highest causes of death in the world.
This disease, which is caused by the fact that cholesterol can cause clogging of arteries, damage to the blood supply to important organs and finally to heart attacks, strokes, limb damage and even death - is considered a veritable epidemic.
The experts of the 'Skinny Pasta' company point out that countless studies have determined that reducing the consumption of foods that contain a large amount of simple carbohydrates, such as regular pasta, rice and white flour bread, leads to a significant decrease in morbidity due to high cholesterol.
And what is the damage to the economy as a result of the prevalence of this disease?
According to the data of the Ministry of Health, it is about NIS 5 billion.
A diet of 4 billion shekels for the public purse
Saturated fat has serious health consequences.
Saturated (solid) fats tend to accumulate more in the walls of blood vessels, along with other substances, and clog them.
The result, the 'Skinny Pasta' company points out, could be heart attacks, if a blood vessel that feeds the heart itself is blocked, or a stroke - if a blood vessel that carries blood to the brain is blocked.
The recommendation today among the professional bodies is to limit the daily energy (calories) that comes from the consumption of saturated fat to less than 10%, for the general healthy population.
For patients with hypercholesterolemia (excess cholesterol in the blood), the recommendation is 5-6% of total daily energy.
According to studies, the aggregate economic damage caused to the health system and, accordingly, to the state coffers, as a result of the consumption of saturated fat, amounts to NIS 4 billion per year.
A world without gluten
According to estimates by the Global Health Forum, the scope of the gluten-free products market in the world in 2022 was 8.2 billion dollars, and it is expected to reach 9.5 billion dollars in 2025.
In the USA, the market volume is about 3.5 billion dollars - an increase of 59% from 2017. In Germany, the volume was 650 million dollars - an increase of 54%. And what is the volume of the market in Israel: the market for gluten-free products has grown in Israel by 86% in 5 years It was valued at 90 million shekels in 2015, and according to Stornext there is an increase of over 20% per year.
Therefore, as of today, according to the estimate, it stands at about a quarter of a billion shekels. 4 segments make up over 50% of the category and are growing: Cereals , breads and pastries, gluten-free pasta (with only 9 calories), noodles, and snacks, and 21% are in refrigerators and frozen food.
Of money
Tags
Sugar
Obesity
