Adelaide mum shares food noise battle and why more needs to be done to tackle SA’s obesity epidemic

SA’s fast food ad ban will help block out food noise but more needs to be done to tackle our obesity epidemic.

For years Jacquie Lavis couldn’t stop thinking about food.

Thoughts about what her next meal would be were all consuming, making it near impossible for the Mawson Lakes mum-of-two to lose weight.

“I’ve always struggled with my weight,” she said.

“I’ve tried everything from hypnosis to going to fat camps and the prepackaged meals and while it works for a little while, it’s still a challenge.

“The whole time, I’m having a fight with myself in my brain about well, there’s food in the cupboard, you don’t need that, but I really want it.”

Jacquie Lavis was 118kg at her highest weight in January 2024. Picture: Supplied

Thanks to weight loss medication Ms Lavis said she's been able to block out the food noise and lose 28kg in the past year. Picture: Supplied

But “food noise” is more than just hunger, it’s a constant mental battle against persistent and obsessive thoughts of food.

“It was just constant back-and-forth in my head,” she said.

“If you can’t control the mental side (...) you can’t control putting food in your mouth.”

Facing her highest weight of 118kg, Ms Lavis was inspired to block out the chatter and take back control of her life and has lost 28kg over the past year thanks to medical weight loss program Juniper.

“It was just like an automatic switching off of the noise in my head,” she said.

“I don’t think about food any more, I just eat when I’m hungry.”

With nearly 60 per cent of adults and 25 per cent of children in South Australia overweight or obese, medication is “just one tool” when it comes to tackling weight loss according to Juniper dietitian Amelia Banderas who says the state’s junk food ad ban is a “great step forward” in encouraging people “to make healthier food choices.”

“The ban is a really great thing. It reflects the evolving understanding of obesity as a complex disease and a challenging public health issue,” she said.

“We know that obesity has now surpassed tobacco as the leading contributor to burden disease in Australia and as a dietitian at Juniper I see how environmental factors like advertising can impact our patients.

“Limiting ultra processed food advertising on public transport is a really great step for creating spaces for people and especially children to make healthier food choices without that constant external influence.”

Along with being adopted nationwide, Ms Banderas hopes to see the junk food ad ban extended to TV advertising as well.

“TV advertising banning as well for specific times targeted on children is a really great preventive measure to ensure that there’s targeted interventions to support a healthy environment for children to prevent further overweight (or) obesity,” she said.

The impact of junk food ads has been “huge” for Ms Lavis who supports extending the ban to TV wholeheartedly.

“We’ve got to address (obesity) as a community,” she said.

“Advertising is definitely one (way) and education in schools is definitely another.”