Falling short on obesity

Rising number of overweight Kiwis concerns experts

Food policies need major improvement if New Zealand is to see any change to its obesity epidemic, experts say. The second Auckland University Health Food Environment Policy Index, published today, scored the country poorly on about half of the food policy indicators used to gauge changes needed to tackle the issue.

The 2017 report asked 71 independent and government public health experts to rate how implementation of government policies on food environments and infrastructure measured up against international best practice. The first version was published in 2014.

Forty-seven per cent of all the good practice indicators were rated as having “low” or “very little, if any” implementation. It was a slight improvement on 2014 when 60 per cent of indicators received one of the bottom two ratings, but there was still a long way to go, said co-author of the report Professor Boyd Swinburn.

“If you look at the outcomes, which are the obesity rates, we’re doing very poorly.”

New Zealand adults and children had the third highest rate of being overweight or obese within the OECD and Kiwi adults were on track to take out the top spot within three or four years, Swinburn said.

In 2015/2016, 32 per cent of adults were obese, up from 27 per cent in 2006/07, and one in nine children aged between 2 and 14 were obese.

But he said the panel scored food- labelling policies well, while several other areas improved their scores. Major gaps were identified for: Healthy food policies in schools. Fiscal policies to support healthy food choices.

Implementing restrictions on unhealthy food marketing to children.

Supporting communities to limit the density of unhealthy food outlets.

Supporting the food retail and service industry to reduce unhealthy food practices.

Ensuring trade and investment deals did not hurt population health.

The panel made 53 proposals but identified nine for immediate action.

The top two were to strengthen the Childhood Obesity Plan and set targets for reducing the number of overweight or obese children from a third to a quarter by 2025, reducing the average intake of salt, sugar and saturated fat and voluntary reformulation of ingredients in key foods.

Swinburn said he believed reducing the childhood obesity rate was doable if the Government got serious about it and committed to making the changes other countries had made.

Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman agreed obesity was a serious issue “threatening the health of young New Zealanders”.

“[It] is particularly concerning in children as it is associated with a wide range of health conditions, it can also affect a child’s overall quality of life.

“There’s no single solution ... That’s why we’ve implemented a Childhood Obesity Plan with a range of interventions across government, the private sector, communities, schools and families,” Coleman said.

Labour health spokesman David Clark said his party supported having real targets for cutting obesity and accountability for reaching them. It would support most of the top nine recommendations.