How sure are you that you won’t lose your feet or toes to diabetes?
According to a new report by the Obesity Collective, based at the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, obesity in Australia is getting much, much worse.
Between 2014-15 and 2017-18, the obesity rate in Australian adults rose from 27.9% to 31.3%.
In other words, over the past 3 years, an additional 900,000 Australians became obese.
Sixty-seven percent of Australian adults are now either overweight or obese (2017-18), an increase from 63.4% in 2014-15.
That’s astonishing.
Astonishingly bad news.
Australia now ranks 5th out of 44 OECD countries in the obesity stakes – it’s a race we shouldn’t be trying to win.
If this trend persists, how will we look in 2027-28?
By that time, nearly nine million Australians will be obese.
Think of the cost – not only costs to our taxpayer-funded health care system, but premature deaths from cardiovascular disease, obesity-related cancers, limbs, feet and toes amputated due to our runaway diabetes epidemic.
According to Diabetes Australia, 4,400 diabetes-related amputations already occur each year in Australia.
That’s set to get worse.
Australia’s runaway obesity epidemic needs to become an election issue
How long till we see concerted national action that is not choreographed by the big food lobby?
Did you know that the Australian Food & Grocery Council seeks a “constructive and collaborative response to obesity”?
They’ve been saying stuff like that for years.
I call it the “hot tub approach”. Let’s all jump into the hot tub together and soap each other’s backs, and see what we can achieve…together.
This “constructive and collaborative approach” – characterised by voluntarism, and weak accountability structures – has been official policy in Canberra for years.
It would be great if it actually worked.
But if it was going to work, wouldn’t we be seeing positive results by now?
Life outside of the “hot tub”
There is life beyond the hot tub.
Feasible policy options to halt Australia’s obesity epidemic have been identified. We know what we could and should do.
The “Australian Obesity Prevention Consensus” sets out an evidence-based policy agenda for the federal government.
Implementing the (surprisingly strong and certainly welcome) recommendations of the Senate Select Committee into the Obesity Epidemic in Australia would also be a good place to start.
The INFORMAS Network monitors the actions of state and federal governments and has issued scorecards on the performance of Australian governments, with priority recommendations. (Watch out for the 2019 Food Policy Index Progress report, to be launched on 2 April 2019).
These reports include recommendations for legal and regulatory changes that the processed food industry will resist.
Like implementing credible – as distinct from voluntary, weak and loophole-ridden – standards to protect children from exposure to unhealthy food and drink marketing.
Like setting ambitious, time-sensitive and independently-monitored targets for reformulation to be met by food manufacturers, retailers and caterers.
Like a health levy on sugary drinks. (Remember folks, at the end of the day, it’s only sugar water, not holy water).
Like making the Health Star Rating system mandatory.
No one likes sharing hot, soapy water with the folks from “big food” more than me, but the statistics speak for themselves.
Over the last 10 years, the number of Australians with obesity has more than doubled, from 2.7 million (2007-08) to 5.8 million in 2017-18.
It’s time to get out of the hot tub, and to implement long-recommended, evidence-based policies to create healthier food environments.
Sydney Health Law 
Leave a Reply