食盐与健康的政治学:英国低盐饮食政策形成史论

Salt and the Politics of Health:A Historical Analysis of the Formulation of Salt-intake Reduction Policy in Britain

虽然食盐在人们的日常生活中扮演了重要的角色,但食盐对于人体产生作用的医学机理直到20世纪才逐渐为人所知。英国将食盐对于人体的害处置于食品政策的范畴始于二战后国际上对于饮食和心血管疾病之间关系的研究。食品政策医学委员会及其后继者英国营养科学咨询委员会为政府制定低盐饮食政策提供了科学建议,而20世纪八九十年代进行的三次国际范围内的关于饮食与高血压之间关系的科学实验,为英国政府低盐政策的形成和实施提供了理论支撑。食品标准局是低盐饮食政策实施的主角,"盐与健康共同行动组织"等非政府组织是政策实施背后主要的压力团体。以英国低盐饮食政策的形成为个案进行研究,不仅有利于理解英国政府食品政策的制定,更能丰富既有的英国食品政策史以至英国医疗卫生史的研究。

Table salt plays a significant role in people＇s daily life. However, the medical function of table salt on human body was not recognized until the 20th century. The detrimental effects of table salt were taken into consideration in the food policies of Britain only after the Second World War when the studies concerning the relationship between diet and cardiovascular disease were initiated. The Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy and its successor, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, provided suggestions for British government to formulate salt-intake reduction policy,the theoretical basis of which were three international experiments about the relationship between diet and hypertension in the 1980s and 1990s. The leading role of the implementation of salt-intake reduction policy was taken by the Food Standards Agency while the NGOs, especially the Consensus Action on Salt and Health, were the major pressure groups. This paper explores into the formulation of salt-intake reduction policy as a case study with the purpose of better understanding the food policies made by British government as well as enriching the established research concerning the history of food policy and medicine in Britain.