Australia’s weight epidemic: 11.2m overweight or obese: report
A WHOPPING 62.4 per cent of Australians are now overweight or obese, with Western Victoria the nation’s third fattest region.
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AUSTRALIA’S bulging waistline is continuing to expand, fuelling a dangerous divide between obesity rates in the country and city.
A whopping 11.2 million Australians — 63.4 per cent of the adult population — are now overweight or obese, according to the latest snapshot of the nation’s health.
In just 20 years, the number of overweight and obese Australians has jumped more than 12 per cent, with the heaviest piling on weight fastest.
The latest report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare — an independent agency established by the Federal Government — shows western Victoria as the nation’s third-fattest region, with 70.1 per cent of its adults unhealthily large.
More than a third of adults in the region, which covers Geelong, Ballarat, Warrnambool and Horsham, are considered obese with a body mass index of 30 or greater.
Excess weight is among the biggest health concerns in Australia, as it leads to heart disease and strokes.
Being overweight or obese also raises the risk of type 2 diabetes, sleep apnoea, osteoarthritis and psychological problems, and is linked to increased chances of developing a wide range of cancers.
Institute spokesman Michael Frost said 68.5 per cent of regional Australians had an unhealthy weight, compared with 60.7 per cent of city dwellers, and this was a firm pattern.
“People in regional areas are more likely to be overweight or obese than those in metropolitan areas,” he said.
The five fattest areas of the country were all in regional Australia, including four which have more than 70 per cent of their adult population with unhealthy weights. By contrast, the five least overweight areas are all in cities.
“Overweight and obesity rates have increased nationally over recent decades to that very high level of 63.4 per cent now,” Mr Frost said.
“The level of people being overweight but not obese has stayed about the same, it is really a growth in the proportion of the population over that time which is obese.”
Of Australia’s 31 primary health networks, country South Australia has the nation’s highest rates of overweight and obesity in the 2014-15 analysis, with 73 per cent.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s home area of northern Sydney recorded the nation’s lowest excess-weight total, still a chunky 53 per cent. So even in the least-stricken region, more than half its adults are overweight or obese.
Mr Frost added: “I cannot comment on what needs to be done or what approach needs to be taken, but we are putting these figures out there to allow local experts and healthcare workers to think about what response is needed. And of course, policy experts and government will have their own views on this.”
OVERWEIGHT IS THE NEW NORM
AUSTRALIA’s obesity epidemic is so advanced that even in the nation’s slimmest region more than half the residents are overweight.
“The norm in our society is to be overweight or obese,” said Obesity Policy Coalition executive manager Jane Martin.
“We don’t go below 53 per cent (obesity among adults in any region), and that is a worry. This is the new normal, and we can’t just sit back and accept it, because the impact on society and the economic cost are very, very serious.”
Southeast Melbourne has Victoria’s lowest rates of overweight and obesity, but even there six out of 10 people are unhealthily heavy.
As the latest horror obesity statistics place the crisis directly in front of policymakers, Ms Martin said a national strategy was urgently needed to combine regulation, education and pricing pressures on unhealthy foods.
RESCUE POSSIBLE WITH CHANGE TO QUALITY FOOD WHEN WEANING
Lobbyists are calling for measures to outlaw junk food marketing and sponsorships aimed at children, a mandatory healthy star rating system for all food products, and a sugar tax on drinks with the revenue poured into health programs in struggling areas.
“This shows that current approaches are not working and that we need to do a lot more, not just in particular communities that are at higher risk,” Ms Martin said.
“This is not going to solve itself — and what we are doing now is just not enough.
“Low-income communities are bearing a huge burden of weight-related disease, we can see that from these figures.
“They are very influenced by a price rise, and (if that happens) they will stop drinking sugary drinks which are a key contributor.”
Just 1.4 per cent of Australia’s health budget is spent on prevention. Ms Martin believes moving resources away from acute hospital services so at least 5 per cent is devoted to prevention is the only way to avoid a meltdown.
“We are investing a lot of money into drugs and dealing with chronic disease once it has happened,” she said.
“But that is like putting the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, when we need to look at putting a net at the top of the cliff to stop people moving into these categories in the first place,’’ she said.
“Poor diet, excess weight and obesity are the leading risk factors for the burden of disease, Our hospital system will not be able to cope in future.
“As a proportion we are spending less at a time when chronic disease is the leading problem in our society. But leaving it to the hospital system to manage is just untenable in the longer term.”
JOURNEY TO BETTER HEALTH HAS BEGUN
A FRANK conversation with her gym-junkie brother made Jasmin Monterroso realise it was time to do something about her weight.
“He said to me, ‘you’re a different person — you’re huge!’,” Ms Monterroso said.
Doing shift work as an IT technician, the 29-year-old said she began to rely on fast food.
“I started going crazy with food, I ate a lot of junk food,” she said.
“Once I started gaining weight and I was in a stable relationship — I sort of gave up.”
Now newly married, Ms Monterroso told her husband she was going to try and shed the kilos.
With three slipped discs, doctors told her she needed to lose the weight to relieve pressure on her spine.
She joined Fit for Living in Geelong last week and is taking three personal training sessions a week for the next three months alongside a change her diet and approach to health.
“I’ve given up smoking and drinking and I don’t really like chocolate but I’m finding it hard to give up bread,” Ms Monterroso said.
Although she’s just begun her weight loss journey, Ms Monterroso aims to lose 20kg for her ideal beach body.
KATE’S LIFE SHAPED BY PAIN OF THE PAST
KATE Dullaghan will never forget the pain of being “the fat kid” at school — now she’s determined to help others lead healthier lives just as she overhauls her own.
Since shedding more than 40kg, Ms Dullaghan, 34, has not only run six marathons, but has become a nutritionist and researcher to help shape policies to curb the obesity epidemic. After enduring the strain of being obese through her childhood, Ms Dullaghan lost weight in her mid-teens, only for it to return under the pressure of year 12.
A decade ago in her mid 20s, Ms Dullaghan devoted herself to making changes she could sustain, and now wants policymakers to put health ahead of profits to protect children from exposure to unhealthy foods.
“For me it was about not eating huge portions, focusing on fresh produce rather than junk food, and incorporating physical activity into my everyday life,” Ms Dullaghan said.
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