Michael Gannon, president of the Australian Medical Association, also called on the government to implement a broad strategy to address the serious health threat that over-nutrition now poses.
Speaking at the launch of the AMA’s latest position statement on obesity, Dr Gannon said that obesity could only be combated if all areas of society worked together in tandem with government policy.
“The AMA strongly recommends that the national strategy include a sugar tax; stronger controls on junk food advertising, especially to children; improved nutritional literacy; healthy work environments; and more and better walking paths and cycling paths as part of smarter urban planning,” he said.
“The whole-of-society strategy must be coordinated at a national level by the federal government, and must be based on specific national goals and targets for reducing obesity and its numerous health effects.”
More than 60% of adults are either overweight or obese, while almost 10% are severely obese and at least a quarter of Australian children and adolescents are overweight or obese, according to AMA figures.
The medical body’s statistics also show that 70% of Australians who are obese have at least one established health condition, leading to an increase in the cost of their healthcare by at least 30%.
“Obesity was conservatively estimated in 2011-12 to cost Australian society A$8.6bn [US$6.6bn] a year in health costs and lost productivity. More recent studies have put the cost much higher,” Dr Gannon said.
“The AMA recommends that the initial focus of a national obesity strategy should be on children and adolescents, with prevention and early intervention starting with the pregnant mother and the foetus, and continuing through infancy and childhood.”
The association said it is now urging the government to lead a national strategy involving physical activity, nutritional measures and targeted interventions, alongside community-based programmes, research, monitoring, treatment and management.
It also recommended that such a strategy should contain elements included more sustained investment in research and subsidies for healthy foods to make them more affordable, especially in remotes areas.
More stories from Down Under…
Bigger companies now opting to outsource their sales to agencies
More big Kiwi food and grocery companies have been seeking specialist help from sales and merchandising agencies as cost and margin pressures increase, the boss of New Zealand's biggest field marketing agency has revealed.
Grant Leach, managing director of Crossmark NZ, said that typically around one in 10 New of companies outsource their sales and merchandising activities, but that ratio is now changing.
He believes that the current increase in popularity of this approach is the result of three factors: New Zealand’s geography making a sales team very expensive to service; increasing cost pressure on manufacturers, which they cannot necessarily pass on to retailers; and growing margin pressures on manufacturers from retailers.
“In the past 12 or 18 months [we] have noticed a change in the type and size of manufacturers that are seriously considering the possibility of using a sales and merchandising agency,” Leach said.
Whereas manufacturers with a turnover of around the NZ$25m (US$18.4m) mark would previously move in this direction, much larger companies including those selling up to NZ$60m worth of products are now considering outsourcing their marketing.
“And I would predict that in the next 12-18 months it’ll be substantially higher than that threshold point.”
Leach added that specialist sales and merchandise services are “where the future is going from a sales and merchandising agency perspective”.
Aboriginals and Torres Strait islanders fail to meet dietary guidelines
Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders are not consuming enough of the five major food groups and too much sugar and other discretionary foods, according to figures released by Australia’s official statistics office.
Like the rest of the population, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ diets fail to meet the country’s dietary guidelines, which recommend minimum serves for vegetables, fruit, dairy products, lean meats and alternatives, and grain-based foods.
Louise Gates, director of health at the Australian Bureau of Statistics, said the latest results showed Aboriginal and Torres Strait adults consumed an average of 2.1 servings of vegetables per day, which is less than half of the 5-6 serves recommended by the guidelines.
"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults consumedalmost one serve—or 30%—fewer vegetables than non-Indigenous people," said Gates.
"They also consume just one serve of fruit on average—half the recommended two servings per day.”
Those in remote areas also on average consume less than one serve of dairy products, though they do take around half a serve more of grain foods and lean meats and alternatives than people living in urban areas.
"The data also show that 41% of the population’s total daily energy intake comes from energy-dense, nutrient-poor ‘discretionary foods’, such as sweetened beverages, alcohol, cakes, confectionery and pastry products," said Gates.
On average, this equates to over six serves of discretionary foods per day—triple the number of vegetable serves consumed.
The Australian dietary guidelines recommend limiting discretionary foods to occasional, small amounts.
Regulator considers permitting use of all minor steviol glycosides
The antipodean food regulator is surveying opinion on an application by a natural sweetener company to permit a wider range of steviol glycosides for use as intense sweeteners.
Steve McCutcheon, chief executive of Fsanz, said that Malaysia-based stevia major PureCircle had sought to amend the definition of steviol glycosides in the Food Standards Code to include all minor glycoside compounds extracted from the stevia leaf.
These are claimed to provide improved flavour and taste compared to those currently permitted.
“Steviol glycosides are permitted food additives in the Codex Alimentarius general standard for food additives,” McCutcheon said, adding that many countries, including America and members of the European Union allowed their use.
“No evidence was found to suggest that the proposed changes pose any public health and safety concerns.”
All Fsanz decisions on applications are notified to ministers responsible for food regulation, who can decide to ask for a review or agree that the standard should become law.
Fsanz has named December 19 as the closing date for submissions from stakeholders and the public.