With Canadian waistlines getting bigger, battle lines are expanding between health advocates and “Big Food”, according to a new book. Drawing parallels from another front, these battle lines are being defined in ways “reminiscent of past and current wars with Big Tobacco”, states The Health Impact of Smoking & Obesity and What to Do About It (University of Toronto Press, $29.95).

“Adding to the circumstantial evidence of a common cause, it is to be noted that some food and tobacco enterprises are owned by the same parent corporation,” the authors write.

Barbara Kaminsky cowrote the book with Hans Krueger, president of H. Krueger & Associates Inc., a Vancouver health-care consulting firm; Dan Williams, the firm’s head of research; and David Mclean, a UBC medical professor.

“We don’t have a lot of data specifically around that [food-industry] area, but we have a lot of data from the tobacco issue,” Kaminsky, an adjunct professor at UBC’s department of medicine, tells the Georgia Straight. “So we believe that it’s reasonable to feel that a number of the lessons learned from tobacco can be applied around the area of obesity.”

These include the use of economic levers like taxation. “The campaigns against tobacco have shown that people are price sensitive, especially younger people, even when the consumable product is addictive,” the book states. “One option, then, is to use special taxation on unhealthy, energy-dense foods and/or sub ­sidies for healthy food.”

Kaminsky expects that dealing with obesity will be as complicated as confronting tobacco. “It was a journey that took 40 to 50 years altogether between when people actually began to understand that tobacco was harmful to your health and where we are now,” she says.

On the tobacco front, the authors call for further tax increases. They cite studies indicating that for every 10-percent rise in cigarette prices, there is a corresponding five- to six-percent decrease in consumption. This approach “works for all segments of the population, but especially for important subgroups such as adolescents and pregnant women”, they state.

The reason the authors give particular mention to youth is simple. Teens who smoke are likely to remain smokers, and young people who are overweight are likely to become obese adults.

“If you combine obesity and tobacco, these are the two biggest risk factors not only for cancer but heart diseases, [and] diabetes, ” says Kaminsky, who’s also CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society’s British Columbia and Yukon division.

A November 29, 2006, report submitted to the B.C. Legislative Assembly by the Select Standing Committee on Health stopped short of proposing a tax on “junk food”. Instead, it recommended the removal of “candy and confections”, “soft drinks”, and other unhealthy foods from the list of goods currently exempt from the provincial sales tax. The committee estimated that this move could generate $40 million to $45 million in revenues per year.

In yet another thrust against tobacco interests, the Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance recently announced that British Columbians on income assistance will be provided nicotine patches and gum through a $1.27-million program called “Quit Smoking Now!” People who sign up with the program will also receive counselling from QuitNow, a free, 24-hours-a-day service operated by the B.C. Lung Association on behalf of the ministry.

Anyone can start a free smoking-cessation program on the QuitNow Web site (www.bc.quitnet.com /) , which also offers support forums and links to other local resources.

However, obesity is a more complex issue compared with tobacco use, Kaminsky says. “One of the obvious differences between tobacco and obesity is that people still need to eat,” she explains. “Then it becomes more complicated about what you eat, how big the portions are, [and] whether you have sufficient activity levels commensurate with your caloric intake.”

Veda Peters, tobacco-education coordinator of the B.C. Lung Association, agrees. But she also stresses that there could be more healthy food alternatives. “If we could get the food industry to stop their practices of offering hundreds of varieties of things and get back to the basics, I think food prices would drop and people would have the opportunity to engage in healthy eating,” Peters tells the Straight.

Arlene Cristall helps families achieve healthy eating and active lifestyles as clinical director of the Ministry of Health’s Shapedown B.C. program based out of BC Children’s Hospital. There’s no dieting involved, but people aged six to 17 get counselling on positive lifestyle changes.

“The things we talk about are universal,” Cristall tells the Straight about the family’s role in addressing the two issues of smoking and obesity. “Are you a role model for your children? Do you do what you say and say what you do?”

Kaminsky adds that it’s not enough to tell people they’re fat or that they shouldn’t smoke.

“Individual behaviour, so-called lifestyle choice is part of the equation, but you need those environmental support[s], such as government policies and industry working together,” she says. “If you leave it just to individuals, it’s not going to create an impact on the population level.”