‘Too early!’: Christmas cheer in September adds to weight gain
PARENTING groups and obesity experts have lashed out at Australia’s supermarkets which have started stocking unhealthy Christmas foods early. HAVE YOUR SAY
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THE footy season is yet to wrap up but thanks to eager retailers, ‘yule’ be able to eat mince pies and puddings from now to Christmas time.
Some supermarkets have already stacked their shelves with festive fare, a full three months ahead of Christmas Day, in a move parent groups and health experts say is “outrageous” and fuelling the country’s obesity epidemic.
Mince pies, puddings, Christmas cakes, cookies and sweets started appearing on Coles shelves earlier this month and Bunnings is also advertising its Christmas lights range.
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Asked why it started selling Christmas goodies so many months before December 25, Coles said it was for the benefit of shoppers.
“Our customers have many different reasons for wanting to shop early for Christmas products with some liking to spread the cost out or plan ahead and do taste tests before the big event, others are catering for festive events and some just like to enjoy spiced treats like fruit mince pies and puddings,” a Coles spokesperson said.
But parenting groups and obesity experts told News Corp Australia having unhealthy Christmas foods — once special treats reserved for just a couple of weeks of the year — available from early Spring to the end of December was harmful not helpful to both Australian parents and kids.
Campaigns manager for Parents Voice Alice Pryor said the mid-Spring sale of Christmas fare was appalling.
“It’s outrageous to have discretionary Christmas treats such as cookies and puddings available at our finger tips from local supermarkets so early this spring,” she said.
“With one in four Australian children overweight or obese, it’s the last thing that parents need to be bombarded with for three months before Christmas and the summer holidays arrive.”
Dr Kathryn Backholer from the Global Obesity Centre at Deakin University said under Australian dietary guidelines sweets and ‘treats’ like mince pies and gingerbread were meant to be enjoyed very occasionally, not for three months of the year.
Typically high in sugar and/or fat and salt, Christmas foods often came under the banner of junk food, she said.
“An unhealthy diet is the leading risk factor for disease and death in Australia (and) the availability and heavy marketing of Christmas treats in supermarkets for a quarter of the year completely undermines the health of all Australians,” Dr Backholer said.
“We are already inundated with these (junk) foods in the supermarket environment and they are situated on shelves perfectly, at perfect height, at the end of aisles, for children and people to be attracted to . . . Christmas just amplifies all of that.
“We already consume too much of these discretionary foods, that’s clearly evident, and definitely at the festive season the intake of our discretionary foods goes up. It used to be just for the month of December but it’s slowly crept out to one quarter of the year.”
Coles and Woolworths came under fire from some quarters earlier this year for promoting Easter and selling hot cross buns just days after Christmas.
Originally published as ‘Too early!’: Christmas cheer in September adds to weight gain
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