Niki Bezzant: Nature versus nurture debate heats up

Parents have a huge part to play in helping ensure Kiwi kids don't lose the battle with the bulge. Photo / Monkey Business Images

COMMENT: Nature or nurture is a question that's long been the subject of social and scientific debate. Are we predisposed to certain conditions and health outcomes, or are we the product of our environment and upbringing?

Researchers at Auckland University say there's little doubt our food environment is shaping us – literally - for the worse.

They've done a groundbreaking survey of New Zealand's food environment – and it's pretty grim reading.

What is a "food environment"? It's what's around us every day: the food we have access to and the messages we're exposed to about food.

The study looked at food composition, labelling, marketing and prices plus food in schools and retail outlets. It found food environments were "predominantly unhealthy".

This is, researchers say, a "major cause" of our very high obesity rates.

Particularly worrying is the environment our kids are growing up in. For example, the study found the food in schools is "surprisingly unhealthy", according to lead researcher, Professor Boyd Swinburn.

Forty-two per cent of schools sold sugary drinks. Over 90 per cent of schools used unhealthy food for fundraising. Within 500m of school gates there were an average of 2.4 takeaways or convenience stores and nine outdoor ads for unhealthy foods. It was worse in more deprived areas; environments termed "food swamps".

When researchers looked at food marketing to children they found more: eight ads per hour for unhealthy foods during children's peak TV-viewing times; nearly three quarters of less healthy breakfast cereals for children used promotional characters on the packaging to appeal to kids.

This comes on top of a study last week from Otago University which found another disconnect: the food sold at sports venues around the country is mainly junk food.

And speaking of junk food, another Auckland University study has found the fast-food industry is delivering just what we don't need: the serving size, energy and sodium levels of New Zealand fast food have all increased significantly over the past five years.

Reading all this, I'll admit, made me feel a bit depressed. What chance do our kids have when their developing minds and bodies are exposed to all this noisy junk?

Which is, I suppose, where "nurture" comes into play.

The Auckland study found that actions by government and the food industry to improve the food environment have thus far been "relatively weak". No news there.

That means it's up to us - parents, whanau and communities - to counter the junk. And the only way we can really do that is through education. It's fostering a knowledge and love of food in our kids; helping them to understand what wholesome food is, and what it's not.

It's teaching them to cook so they can nourish themselves.

And it's educating them about marketing; turning them into savvy consumers who can spot when they're being targeted.

It's not easy in a constantly connected world. But it's one way we can arm our kids to fight back in a hostile food environment.

• Niki Bezzant is editor-at-large for Healthy Food Guide www.healthyfood.co.nz