Marketing driving NZ up obesity table

A New Zealand doctor who specialises in obesity is unsurprised the country now ranks at number seven in an OECD league of the world's most obese nations.

Wellington hospital director of clinical services Robyn Toomath said that as a third of New Zealand primary school children are overweight, it had to be expected.

She said "across the board" New Zealanders are more obese than ever, "yet there's a particular problem among Maori, and the figures are higher again for Pacific Islanders".

New Zealand ranks seventh on the latest Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) list of the world's fattest countries (with 20.9 per cent of the population classified as obese), behind Australia (21.7 per cent), while the United States has ballooned into first place with 30.6 per cent.

Ms Toomath, who is also a spokeswoman for Fight the Obesity Epidemic, blames the marketing of junk food on the rise.

"We are terribly prone to marketing techniques which are unbelievably diverse, and subtle and powerful."

She said foods which used to be seen as something you had once in a while -- "like chips and soft drinks" -- are now "locked into culture, as something you eat several times a day".

Dr Toomath, who says there has been a tremendous increase in obesity locally over a very short period of time, said the growth is leading to eating-related illnesses filtering down to children.

"There's been a rise in diabetes, and surgeons are now having to do gall bladder operations on children, which is something we used to say only occurred if you were 'fat and forty'."

Whereas in the past, a lack of education has been pinpointed as a major fat factor, Ms Toomath said times have changed.

"A vast majority of people who are overweight are fully aware potato chips, soft drinks, pies and chocolate biscuits are things that make you fat, so educating people about fatty foods is a waste of time."

She said the only way of stopping the bulge in numbers is to "re-engineer society"

"We have to put a different frame around it and say 'look, what do we have to do to protect our children from becoming obese?"'

Once we have that framework in mind, there are a huge number of things we can do, she said.

"Like taking advertising of junk food off TV and taking junk food out of schools . . . That is the beginning."

Obesity - percentage of population, worst 10 nations

United States - 30.6 per cent
Mexico - 24.2 per cent
United Kingdom - 23 per cent
Slovak Republic - 22.4 per cent
Greece - 21.9 per cent
Australia - 21.7 per cent
New Zealand - 20.9 Per cent
Hungary - 18.8 per cent
Luxembourg - 18.4 per cent
Czech Republic - 14.8 per cent

(Source: OECD)

- NZPA