Manawatu¯ residents feel fat

A new survey shows Manawatu¯ residents feel overweight, are stressed about what to eat and think healthy food is too expensive.

The survey, commissioned by Nutribullet Balance, investigated just over 1000 Taranaki, Whanganui and Manawatu¯ residents’ attitudes towards food, dietary habits and barriers to healthy eating.

It showed one in three people believed they needed to lose more than 15 kilograms to be healthy and in the past year, seven out of 10 people had been on a diet.

More than half said they would eat more healthily if it was easier and more than a third said they were often stressed and confused about what they should be eating.

Nutritionist Nikki Hart said she was not surprised there was so much confusion about what people should eat.

‘‘We are constantly bombarded with food trends – we want health but we want luxury, we worry about obesity but we want a quick fix, not a long-term plan. Our obesity statistics are showing us that we are still steadily gaining.

‘‘Twenty years ago when I first started consulting, 120 kilograms was considered rare – now I regularly see people at 140kg.’’

Hart said portion control was essential when trying to maintain a healthy body, and parents needed to stop feeding their children adult-sized portions.

Central Primary Health Organisation clinical dietitian Suzanne Aitken said one of the things she heard most often about eating healthily was the financial implications.

‘‘It’s a big deterrent.’’

She said dietitians wanted people to get back to basics with food and they were promoting holistic thinking about living a healthy lifestyle, rather than fixating about weight.

‘‘This is a problem we hear all the time – people [thinking] they have to lose a certain number to be happy.’’

Programmes in schools, as well as resources online, could help people and give them cooking ideas. ‘‘It has to be a healthy life, not a diet. It needs to be a bit of a cultural shift about why we are eating food and what food we are eating.’’

Massey University lecturer and anti-weight-loss industry campaigner Andrew Dickson said results in the survey didn’t surprise him.

‘‘In the 1980s, 80 per cent of people were having a crack at some kind of diet and really nothing has changed, except for the diets.’’

Dickson said the reality of the weight-loss industry was people who lost the weight normally put it back on and then more.

‘‘We are constantly bombarded with food trends – we want health but we want luxury.’’ Nutritionist Nikki Hart