Unhealthy food messages dominate deprived areas
People living in lower socioeconomic areas have three times the number of fast food and takeaway outlets around them than those in less deprived areas, new research shows.
They are also shown more advertisements for unhealthy food and more shelf space is devoted to junk food in their local supermarket.
That’s according to a threeyear study by Auckland University researchers, who, in a world first, have mapped the country’s food environments and policies.
The study, led by Professor of Population Nutrition and Global Health Boyd Swinburn, aimed to create a full picture of the healthiness of New Zealand’s food environments.
Between 2014 and 2017, researchers looked at the composition of more than 13,000 packaged foods, food labelling, marketing and prices as well as foods sold in schools, hospitals and sport centres.
It was ‘‘obvious’’ New Zealand’s very high rates of obesity came from the ‘‘unhealthy state of food environments’’ where people were making their food choices, the researchers found.
Almost 1 in 3 adult New Zealanders and 1 in 10 children are obese. A further 35 per cent of adults are overweight.
The 2016/17 New Zealand health survey found that children living in the most deprived areas were 2.5 times as likely to be obese than those living in the least deprived areas.
Swinburn’s study found
13.7 fast food and takeaway outlets per 10,000 people in the most deprived areas versus 3.7 in the least deprived areas.
Children were bombarded with marketing for unhealthy food across all media, Swinburn said. Between 6pm-8pm children are shown an average of eight TV ads per hour for unhealthy foods;
43 per cent of food ads in teen magazines are for junk foods; and nearly three-quarters of less healthy breakfast cereals for children use cartoon characters in marketing. Food in schools was also ‘‘surprisingly unhealthy’’ – of the 819 schools surveyed, more than 90 per cent used unhealthy food for fundraising and 42 per cent sold sugary drinks.
There was an average of 2.4 takeaways or convenience stores and nine outdoor ads for unhealthy foods within 500m of urban schools, the study said.
‘‘People choose their diets from the food environments around them and when these are dominated by unhealthy foods and drinks, it is no surprise that our overall diets are unhealthy and our obesity rates are so high,’’ Swinburn said.
‘‘You don’t have to look far to see why we have such big health disparities in the rates of obesity, diabetes, dental and even mental health problems.’’
Those with the power to change this – the Government and major food companies – could be doing better, the study suggests. The research, funded by the Health Research Council and Heart Foundation, found the Government was also not at the level of international best practice for most of the recommended food policies. ‘‘Improving food environments through government and food industry actions would go a long way to breaking the cycles of poverty and poor health.’’