The plan to beat Australia’s obesity epidemic

Australia, like much of the western world, is in the grip of a deadly obesity crisis with two in three adults overweight

No country has a completely comprehensive plan in place for beating obesity

• Healthy gut is key to preventing disease
• Aussie children fail at physical activity

Shoppers in Chile can no longer plead ignorance over which foods are making them fat. Just decades on from struggling with malnutrition, the South American nation is in the grip of a deadly weight crisis just like Australia, with 63 per cent of people over 15 overweight or obese.

But after bringing in radical public health interventions, Chile has become the most aggressive nation in the pursuit of slimming down its citizens.

Bold black-and-white warnings appear on packaged food in Chile, screaming to the consumer of the perils the food contains — be it sugar, saturated fat or calories.

Australia’s Obesity Policy Coalition executive manager Jane Martin says no country has a completely comprehensive plan in place for beating obesity but Chile is leading ­the way.

“Chile has got comprehensive controls on the marketing of unhealthy food, a good sugar-tax regimen and a labelling system on packaged food,” Martin says.

“With Kellogg’s products like Frosties (cereal), they’ve got no marketing on the packaging. It really is amazing, they’ve removed all cartoon characters on the packaging which is considered marketing to children.”

Yet it could be decades before significant effects on the nation’s collective weight are seen.

A new policy document calls for soft drink at schools to be banned in Australia

“It is just too early but it will be monitored; it’s a little bit like tobacco control, as what we did 30 years ago is playing out now,” Martin says.

And therein lays the critical stumbling block to curbing the world’s biggest health crisis — there is no quick fix.

The Obesity Policy Coalition is a network of experts from Cancer Council Victoria, Diabetes Victoria and Deakin University who this week added to the endless stream of advice to tackle obesity.

In Australia, two in three adults are overweight or obese as are a quarter of children.

The landmark 47-point plan, compiled by 100 experts from 53 organisations, is a national review of nutrition policies which compared states as well as mapping the best practices internationally.

South Korea has the strongest planning policies and zoning laws for unhealthy foods as it prohibits junk food within 200m of schools.

Meanwhile, Quebec scored highest in the policy areas for restricting the promotion of unhealthy food in non-broad media as it bans all commercial advertising directed at children through any medium.

This week’s policy document called for junk food at schools and sports venues to be banned in Australia as well as a tax on sugary drinks, prohibiting junk food advertising on television until 9pm, boosting the price of junk foods by 20 per cent and reducing salt, fat and sugar in packaged foods.

Health Minister Greg Hunt. Picture Kym Smith

Martin says South Australia is the worst performing state, while the Australian Capital Territory is the strongest.

NSW came in mid-range with points for its work to improve food quality in schools, nutrition labelling at fast-food outlets and regular monitoring of people’s weight.

However, it was told to lift its game by actively monitoring the marketing of junk food to kids and its sale in schools, implement polices to restrict promotion of unhealthy foods in settings controlled by state government, require food outlets to display more nutrition information and introduce stronger incentives for schools to comply with food policies and be accountable.

Martin says having obesity as a Premier’s Priority in NSW had moved the issue outside of the realm of health.

“It has led to a lot of cross- pollination and work between government departments and that’s really important it doesn’t just sit with health.

“They deal with the end results but prevention is in transport, education, planning … leadership and implementation of plans across government is another thing we know is a precursor to success in dealing with this issue of poor diet and overweight and obesity,” she says.

The push to ban junk food companies from advertising during the hours children may be watching television comes after a damming study by Cancer Council NSW.

It concluded that regulations introduced in 2009 by the food industry had failed to protect children from the junk food advertisements that wallpaper their lives.

A fifth of the ads were for fast food, followed by confectionery and sugary drinks

The study found children were exposed to about three unhealthy food advertisements every hour of television consumed during peak times in Sydney — on par with results in 2011.

A fifth of the ads were for fast food, followed by confectionery and sugary drinks, with half of food advertisements for junk food.

Cancer Council NSW says the food industry’s self-regulatory initiatives are riddled with loopholes such as defining “advertising for children’’ as an audience comprised of at least 35 per cent children.

The study found there were, in just Sydney alone, 40,000 children watching a rugby league game and 30,000 watching a cooking show yet they only constituted 10 per cent of the audience.

“They are still marketing during prime time on programs like Big Bash and X Factor — they’re the highest rating children’s programs. And their regulations don’t cover digital advertising and packaging,” Martin says.

“When industry is making up its own rules and marking its own homework it’s bound to be problematic.”

Cancer Council NSW pulls no punches in its summing up of the situation.

“For almost eight years now, junk food companies have been taking advantage of these weak, self-defined codes because there has been nothing to stop them from doing so,” it says.

“We will continue to see no change in the rate of unhealthy food advertising to children unless government takes action.’’

For Martin, the obesity crisis in Australia is a direct result of marketing and advertising.

“Children are particularly vulnerable to marketing of unhealthy food which are key influencers of what they eat and want to eat.

“It’s very hard as parents to protect your children from it,” she says.

“We are the subject of a marketing pricing success story.”

If money makes the world go around then it can also slim us down, according to the experts.

A sugar tax was a plank of the policy put forward this week and it’s an idea that won’t die off despite both sides of politics repeatedly rejecting it.

The report awarded Australia the highest success rating for its minimisation of taxes on healthy foods but were found to have had “very little, if any” action on increasing taxes on unhealthy foods.

Mexico and South Africa have a sugar drinks tax and the idea is being pushed in the UK.

It took the support of billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg to get the idea over the line in Mexico as he funded an advertising war with the junk food industry.

In Australia, opinion is divided on the effectiveness of the tax, but Martin says strong improvements in dental health and weight loss will be seen “in time” if the tax was applied.

The louder the food industry in Australia condemns the idea, the more confidence it gives her it will work.

“The more we see push-back from industry the more we know it’s likely to be a successful policy. It just means for government it will entail political capital and political will to make it happen,” she says.

Deakin University’s Dr Gary Sacks, who worked on this week’s policy, first went on radio five years ago to discuss a sugar tax and was hit with vitriol but believes the tide is now turning.

“I think the conversation is moving, I did a lot of talk back radio this week and … the flavour of the conversation is much more recognition of the problem with concerned parents phoning in,” he says.

“I do feel that in regards to politicians’ point of view, I’m banging my head against a wall but public opinion is definitely moving on from five years ago when I first went on radio talking about a tax on unhealthy food.

“I got slammed then but that’s no longer the case. That gives me some hope there is a chance of change.”

Martin says obese and overweight people need a “white knuckle” commitment to shed weight as fat becomes the norm in Australia’s obesogenic society and that’s why radical action across schools, public facilities, sporting events, restaurants and at the checkout is required.

“The forces working against healthy eating are so great in our society, who’s succeeding? Only people who are saying no at every turn,” she says.

“Your best intentions are undermined at every step. You park your car, get out and there’s a vending machine.

“Our whole world needs to be reconstituted, the problem’s not surmountable but a lot needs to be done.

“The government is being beaten back by industry so their will starts to wain but I believe eventually they will be forced to take steps they might not want to take.”

For all the centimetres in newspapers and hours of coverage on radio and television, this week’s policy announcement was immediately rejected by Health Minister Greg Hunt.

“We acknowledge today’s report, but it does not take into account a number of the government programs now underway,” the minister said in a statement.

“Obesity and poor diets are complex public health issues with multiple contributing factors, requiring a community-wide approach as well as behaviour change by individuals.

“We do not support a new tax on sugar to address this issue.

“Fresh fruit and vegetables are already effectively discounted as they do not have a GST applied.

“We’re committed to tackling obesity, but increasing the family’s weekly shop at the supermarket isn’t the answer.”

It seems Dr Sacks might crack open his head banging it on the wall of politicians’ inaction before he sees the nation lose weight.