Laws on leaness

I had been meaning to write a blog on Obesity demographics for a few weeks now and was prompted to digress slightly today when I noticed an article in the paper about a junk food tax. This debate has raged for a while with advocates suggesting the government has been derelict in not introducing any legislative reforms to address the nations expanding waistlines and that a tax might decrease consumption of junk food. Tax revenue would be directed to make fruit and veg cheaper, which has risen 7.8% this year compared to junk food price rise of approximately 1.5%. Those who sit on the other side of the fence claim such laws are big brother like, probably wont work (where is the evidence is the catch cry) and there should be more energy spent (excuse the pun) getting people more active and improving their diet. 

From what I know of health promotion programs I think the later has been done in a myriad of ways yet the obesity epidemic is getting worse not better. At what point does legislation need to be introduced to save people from themselves?

We have seen the success of such legislative reforms in relation to tobacco control and road safety so is it not plausible this would work for obesity?

As we to and fro about what are the best interventions one thing is unequivocal, we are getting fatter. Obesity has now over taken tobacco as the biggest preventable risk factor to our health.

Latest estimates show obesity in Australia is estimated to cause:

• 23.8% of Type 2 diabetes (n=242033)

• 21.3% of CVD (n=644843)

• 24.5% of osteoarthritis (n=422274)

• 20.5% of colorectal, breast, uterine and kidney cancer (n=30127)

Source: Access Economics report for Diabetes Australia: The growing cost of
obesity in 2008: three years on
 

Total direct cost: $8.283 billion
Lost well being: $49.9 billion

It can be argued that food choice is a personal one but when obesity is having such a devastating impact on the nations health something more needs to be done about it.


Jessica