Food courts always make me cringe whenever I step a reluctant foot inside them. The sights and smells of masses of people tucking into often unhealthy food is enough to kill my appetite better than any grease-laden meal could. Today, waiting for a flight in Auckland airport, I have no choice but to brave one. I sit down with my bowl of unappetising miso noodle soup and open American Scientific to see an article on the obesity crisis in the United States. It prompts me to look around. What I see doesn’t bode well for the Australasian side of the story. In fact, in the time it has taken me to write this much, the man to the right of me has devoured his McDonald’s Chicken Deluxe burger and has begun to work his way through a large chips. To the left of me Sumo Salad and the Asian noodle bar have had smatterings of customers, whilst McDonald’s stands in the middle enticing a steady crowd. The article I’m halfway through reading may be based in the USA – where a whooping two thirds of the population are overweight – but its problem is clearly worldwide. Australia and New Zealand are part of an obesity epidemic that is clearly growing at an alarming rate.

Its is hard to say which statistic taken from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2004-05 National Health Survey is the most alarming. Is it the fact that the survey discovered 54 percent of Australians are overweight or obese, or is it that a six year old survey discovered that obesity rates are rising fast, leaving us with the knowledge that those statistics are likely to be even less flattering now? In fact, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, recent data suggests the prevalence of overweight and obesity is now around 60 percent. Whilst smoking is often considered the biggest cause of early death, smoking rates are dropping with stricter laws, higher taxes, and better education. What will come as a shock to many is that the Western Australia public health department has recently shown that obesity has overtaken tobacco as the leading cause of preventable death in the state, and is likely to reflect the trend of the entire country. It is clear obesity rates are rising and yet the government doesn’t seem to be putting their foot down like they have with tobacco use. Similar to anti-smoking campaigns, education could be the biggest weapon we have in the fight against obesity, but with 44 percent of overweight or obese adults seeing themselves as a healthy weight, perhaps education isn’t as easy as it initially seems. It appears our country doesn’t understand what overweight or obese is. Cracking down on education amongst our rapidly expanding youth isn’t just a good start, it’s a necessary one.

Then there is the somewhat touchy subject of implementing higher taxes and new health conscience laws. I’ve seen smoking taxes raised, advertising cease almost worldwide, health warnings escalate, graphic pictures thrust out in the open, and smoking banned in pubs and restaurants throughout my lifetime. I’ve sat back and watched the war on smoking with a grin, knowing that with a message this strong, my children and my children’s children are less likely to endanger their health by taking up or being around smoking. Has the time come to begin a similar campaign against being overweight? Is it time to look past the feelings of those with excess body fat and crack down hard on an epidemic that is costing us millions, no, billions in health care and government subsidies? According to research by Colagiuri et al. (2009) the total excess annual direct cost due to overweight and obesity in 2005 was $10.7 billion and overweight and obese individuals received $35 billion in government subsidies. When you consider that some of that money is coming directly from your taxes and going towards something completely preventable that doesn’t necessarily benefit you, you have to wonder why we haven’t cracked down harder against overweight and obesity. Should junk food be taxed at a higher level, (perhaps the price of vegetables and fruit could come down as a result)? Should obese people have to pay for their own gastric bypass surgeries, their own hip replacements? How privatised should our health care be? Why do hospitals sell more cakes and pies in their cafeterias than they do healthy food, and should a law be passed restricting the sale of junk foods from both hospitals and schools? Every day I find myself answering yes to the above questions. Australia and New Zealand need to up their efforts to fight obesity, even if it seems a little totalitarian at times.

Image credits: Kathryn Sprigg