The Associated Press - 21 September 2006
New Zealand bans fatty, sugary foods and drinks from schools to fight obesity
New Zealand will purge school snack shops of fatty, sugary food and drinks as part of a four-year bid to slash the nation's burgeoning obesity levels, senior officials said Thursday.
More than half New Zealand's 4 million people are either overweight or obese "and, alarmingly, that classification applies to more than 30 percent of our children," Prime Minister Helen Clark said at the launch of the 67 million New Zealand dollar anti-obesity campaign.
Improving nutrition and encouraging a more active lifestyle among young New Zealanders is the first step in fighting the "obesity epidemic," she said. In the future, "food and drinks with high sugar, fat and salt content won't be on school shop shelves," Education Minister Steve Maharey said.
Health Minister Pete Hodgson said no country has been successful in countering the growing trend toward obesity, and that New Zealand would only win the battle of the bulge if it "brings people and children with us."
This included introducing healthy food, drink and exercise policies into the nation's Health and Education ministries. It would later be expanded to all government agencies.
The Press - Friday, 30 March 2007
Govt 'heeds industry not medics' on obesity
Health professionals and the food industry are "poles apart" over how to curb obesity - and the Government is ignoring the medics, says a health policy analyst.
Health professionals wanted Government regulation while industry submitters favoured public education, analyst John White said in his report on submissions to the health select committee inquiry on obesity.
White said that to date, the Government had largely ignored the advice of health professionals.
They wanted urgent changes including:
- Restrictions on fast-food advertising.
- Taxes and subsidies to encourage eating healthy food.
- A "traffic-light" system for food labelling.
White said the use of taxes and/or subsidies to encourage healthier food choices was "scarcely on the radar" for the Government and it was clear the Health Ministry did not favour the traffic-light proposal.
White's analysis also reported "a huge difference" in the quality of evidence from the health sector and industry.
"Health-sector submissions were able to back their case by referring to the relevant major international academic reviews," White said.
"Industry submissions, on the other hand, tended to put too much faith in a review of poor academic quality that they had commissioned themselves via the Foundation for Advertising Research."
White said five industry groups built their case against restrictions around "completely discredited" research by the World Federation of Advertisers.
Fight the Obesity Epidemic, which commissioned White's analysis of the 312 submissions, said expert medical opinion was being ignored by the Government, the policies of which were more aligned with the needs of food manufacturers.
Spokeswoman Robyn Toomath said manufacturers and advertisers "put the onus entirely on individuals to do something about their own weight problems".
Parents spoken to by The Press yesterday agreed unhealthy foods were too attractive, particularly to children who often influenced the contents of a supermarket trolley.
In New Zealand a BMI of 32 or more has been used to define obesity for Maori and Pacific people because studies have shown this slightly higher BMI is a more accurate index of fatness in these groups than that used for non-Maori and non-Pacific people.
SELECTED OTHERS
17. New Zealand, 68.4 %
21. Australia, 67.4 %
28. United Kingdom, %
35. Canada, 61.1 %
43. Germany, 60.1 %
47. Vanuatu, 59.6 %
68. Fiji, 54.8 %
76. South Africa, 53.3 %
128. France, 40.1 %
148. China, 28.9 %
163. Japan, 22.6 %
193. Ethiopia, 5.6 %
194. Eritrea, 4.4 %
TOP 10
1. Nauru, 94.5 % of population overweight
2. Federated States of Micronesia, 91.1 %
3. Cook Islands, 90.9 %
4. Tonga, 90.8 %
5. Niue, 81.7 %
6. Samoa, 80.4 %
7. Palau,78.4 %
8. Kuwait, 74.2 %
9. United States, %
10. Kiribati, 73.6 %
From The New Zealand Herald - 21 February 2007
Pacific Islands 'worst in world for obesity'
Pacific Island nations have the most overweight people in the world, according to the most recent estimates by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Eight out of the ten of the "fattest" countries are in the Pacific, the research found.
The top four - Nauru, Micronesia, the Cook Islands and Tonga - all have more than 90 per cent of their population defined as overweight.
A report published in Forbes magazine said increased Western imports and a significant change in diet due to closer economic ties with the US and New Zealand were partly to blame.
Other reasons given for the region's high obesity rates include a reliance on fatty, nutrient-poor imported foods and a decrease in the amount of physical labour.
"Obesity has become a problem of poverty," said Daniel Epstein of the WHO Regional Office of Americas. "Poor people have an easier time of eating junk food. People fill up on things that have a high caloric value but little nutritional value."
There is better news for New Zealand, which ranks number 17 in the world with an estimated 68 per cent of the population being classed as overweight - four places ahead of Australia.
WHO define anyone over the age of 15 with a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 25 as overweight and a BMI equal or greater than 30 as obese.
How these Pacific countries rank, and compared with other selected countries.
Obesity News from New Zealand
