Kiwi sporting heroes to help combat childhood obesity

Valerie Adams, Brendon McCullum, Shaun Johnson, Casey Kopua and Israel Dag will be the faces of the new campaign. Photo / Supplied

Kiwi sporting heroes will front a campaign kicking off tomorrow to combat childhood obesity.

Sports stars including Olympian Valerie Adams, Silver Fern captain Casey Kopua, All Black Israel Dagg, Black Cap skipper Brendon McCullum and Warriors star Shaun Johnson will be the faces of the new high profile public awareness campaign.

With a theme "Big change starts small" it aims to get people to make small healthy lifestyle changes to tackle obesity.

The campaign, one of 22 initiatives in the Government's Childhood Obesity Plan, will be supported by a new website that offers affordable meal and activity ideas.

"Obesity is a serious issue and the idea of starting with small changes is one we can all get behind," said heath minister and sport and recreation minister Jonathan Coleman.

"There are some easy small changes we can make such as substituting unhealthy snacks...rewarding kids with activities instead of food treats and making water the first choice."

The campaign will run for six weeks across a range of media and aimed to get people talking about how lifestyle choices impact on children's health.

Childhood obesity is set to overtake tobacco next year as the leading preventable health risk in New Zealand.

Last year, more than 58,600 children went through the free B4 School health screening, of them, more than 1400 were referred for obesity-related support.

Mr Coleman said that figure was expected to more than 4000 by the end of 2017 under a new childhood obesity health target.

The new initiatives would include exercise interventions for obese children from the age of 4 and also referring those overweight for dieting.

The minister said New Zealand was one of the first OECD countries to have a target and a comprehensive plan to tackle obesity.