New Zealand should restrict access to junk food instead of blaming people for eating what surrounds them, says a report. Photo / 123rf
New Zealand should restrict access to junk food instead of blaming people for eating what surrounds them, says a report. Photo / 123rf
A third of NZ adults are obese and policies focused on individual responsibility are failing, a new report says.
Tackling obesity will require cracking down on junk food advertising, the proliferation of takeaways, and bringing in new levies on unhealthy products.
The Government has not committed to any changes, but says it is ‘actively seeking advice’ on nutrition changes.
When Dr David Galler first began working in Middlemore Hospital’s intensive care unit, his shifts were taken up by mostly young people with injuries from alcohol and violence.
During his 30 years at the hospital, the make-up of patients gradually shifted. By the late 1990s, he and his colleagues were increasingly tied up by people with preventable, long-term conditions, in particular complications from diabetes.
Former Middlemore intensive care specialist Dr David Galler says obesity-related illnesses consumed more and more of his workload during his career, at huge expense and frustration. Photo / Jason Oxenham
The rates of people with obesity-related problems rose exponentially through the 2000s. It was grim, dispiriting work, Galler said.
“It was a bit like repairing broken panes of glass in a demolished building. You repair that pane of glass at considerable cost to them, their families and the state. Three months later the same person comes in with three broken panes. And then you never see them again because they’re dead.”
Though obesity rates have gradually risen during the past 30 years, the political approach to the problem in New Zealand has barely changed. A report released today aims to jolt politicians into changing tack. Galler is among those endorsing its message.
The Helen Clark Foundation’ report, Junk Food and Poor Policy, says successive governments over several decades have primarily approached obesity as a matter of individual responsibility. This approach would continue to fail unless the country’s broader food environment was addressed, the report concludes.
Its authors say meaningful change would require tackling overexposure to cheap, convenient, unhealthy food that was promoted by sophisticated marketing, often targeted at children.
“For Kiwis to be healthy, they need to be living in a healthy food environment,” foundation executive director Murray Bruges said. “But our streets, supermarket shelves and school canteens are packed with food that is convenient, highly processed and high in fat, salt and sugar, while our airwaves amplify and target these unhealthy products.”
Helen Clark Foundation executive director Murray Bruges.
Obesity is now the leading risk factor for death and disability in this country, ahead of smoking. Ministry of Health data released last week shows more than a third of New Zealand adults were obese – the third-highest rate in the OECD. Related illnesses cost the health system $2 billion a year and the economy an estimated $9 billion in lost productivity.
Despite the growing social and economic toll, few New Zealand governments had introduced evidence-based, long-term steps to reduce obesity, the foundation says. Instead, they had opted for voluntary or industry-led schemes like the Health Star Rating, minor policy tweaks or brief campaigns focused on personal responsibility.
Relatively small-scale reforms have stalled or rapidly dropped, often falling victim to claims of “nanny state”. One example: the Helen Clark-led Labour Government changed the rules in 2008 to allow only healthy options in school canteens, before this was quickly reversed by National when it came into power. Massey University research published last week found that, 15 years later, a fraction of school canteens met nutrition guidelines.
The report says the food system is “stacked against individuals” and people could not change if they lived in an environment that made change impossible.
Community leader Dave Letele says his neighbourhood is swamped by cheap, unhealthy food outlets: "We are surrounded by everything that's bad for us." Photo / RNZ
“Choice implies an equal starting point,” said community leader Dave Letele, who runs health programmes for low-income households in South and West Auckland. “And that’s just not the case.”
He is exasperated about the number of fast-food outlets in his community. Previous analysis by the foundation found the concentration of takeaways was highest in the most deprived suburbs in New Zealand.
“How has this been allowed to happen?” he said. “Where we are just surrounded by everything that’s bad for us, right at our fingertips?”
The Helen Clark Foundation made three overarching recommendations: creating a healthier food environment; embedding healthier food across hospitals, schools, daycares and other publicly owned entities; and adopting and expanding new treatments like modern weight-loss drugs.
The first recommendation includes measures that have been occasionally floated in New Zealand, but never gained traction: stricter rules for advertising junk food, giving local government power to control new unhealthy food outlets (similar to alcohol laws), and making the Health Star Rating on food packaging mandatory.
It also includes a levy to incentivise reformulation of products that are high in salt or sugar.
Professor of Population Nutrition and Global Health Boyd Swinburn says levies on sugar are now mainstream policy worldwide. Photo / NZPA
Professor Boyd Swinburn, of the University of Auckland’s School of Population Health, said with 100 countries now using a sugar tax, it was not a radical policy.
“Even in the UK over the chaotic period of the Tory government with Brexit and Covid and Boris Johnson, they still managed to get through some world-leading legislation around taxing sugary drinks and banning junk food marketing to kids. So, I think it’s time that we caught up in this country with the rest of the world.”
A Soft Drinks Levy introduced in the UK in 2016 led to a 35% reduction in the total sugar sold over four years and lowered hospital admissions for dental treatment, the report says. Sales of these products remained the same throughout this period because companies altered their products rather than pay the levy.
Associate Health Minister Matt Doocey says he is seeking advice on what actions the Government could take to improve nutrition in New Zealand. Photo / RNZ
Associate Health Minister Matt Doocey, who is responsible for nutrition, did not directly address the recommendations, but said he was actively seeking advice on what actions the Government could take to improve nutrition in New Zealand.
“The Government funds the Heart Foundation in New Zealand to work with food companies to reduce sugar and salt in their products, Health NZ also funds Green Prescriptions for people wanting to be more active, with the most common reason being to support weight management.”
NZ Food and Grocery Council chief executive Raewyn Bleakley said a tax on sugary drinks was a “crude tool” and that innovation, reformulation, and education were better options.
Council members had worked with the Heart Foundation to reformulate their products and remove around 760 tonnes of sugar in the last decade, she said.
Bleakley said the food industry followed a code for advertising products to children, and took its responsibilities in this area very seriously.
Isaac Davison is an Auckland-based reporter who covers health issues. He joined the Herald in 2008 and has previously covered the environment, politics and social issues.
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