Kerre Woodham: We need to do something about preventing obesity

The health system, well, we're not really talking about the health system, but how not to get into the health system because every time we talk about the health system, we talk about the need to stop people getting into the health system in the first place, the need to focus on prevention rather than cure.

And the Helen Clark Foundation has come up with a new report calling on politicians to take a new direction when it comes to problems with obesity and the health problems related to obesity.

A third of New Zealand adults are obese and even if we want to split hairs and play fast and loose with the BMI - All Black front rowers are technically obese! Everybody knows you can be skinny fat! You know you can all protest as much as you like, but the fact is too many of us are unhealthy because we're fat and that leads to a long, miserable and expensive relationship with the country's health system.

Obesity is now the leading risk factor for death and disability in this country. The Helen Clark Foundation Report, ‘Junk Food and Poor Policy’ says successive governments have primarily approached obesity as a matter of individual responsibility.

And I would add to that, that society also sees obesity as a moral failing, which complicates matters. So if you're fat, you've got poor self-control, haven't you? Oh dear, you're not trying hard enough. Oh dear, you're clearly a person with lax morals, all that kind of judginess goes on as well.

The foundation argues that successive governments have done far too little to address the underlying issues of what causes obesity. Only a fraction of school canteens meet the nutritional guidelines. The concentration of takeaways is highest in the most deprived suburbs in New Zealand, so the people who have the least amount of time to prepare nutritional meals, find themselves bombarded with takeaway stores just around the corner.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the carry wood of morning's podcast from
News Talk set B.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
The health system, Well, we're not really talking about the
health system, but how not to get into the health system,
because every time we talk about the health system, we
talk about the need to stop people getting into the
health system in the first place, the need to focus
on prevention rather than cure. And the Helen Clark Foundation
has come up with a new report calling on politicians

(00:33):
to take a new direction when it comes to problems
with obesity and the health problems related to obesity. A
third of New Zealand adults are obese. And even if
we want to split hairs and play fast and loose
with the BMI, all black front rowers are technically obese.
Everybody knows you can be skinny fat. You know, you

(00:54):
can all protest as much as you like, But the
fact is too many of us are unhealthy because we're fat,
and that leads to a long, miserable and expensive relationship
with the country's health system. Obesity is now the leading
risk factor for death and disability in this country. The
Helen Clark Foundation report Junk Food and Poor Policy says

(01:18):
successive governments have primarily approached obesity as a matter of
individual responsibility. And I would add to that that society
also sees obesity as a moral failing, which complicates matters.
So if you're fat, ooh, you've got poor self control,
haven't you. Oh dear, you're not trying hard enough. Oh dear,

(01:42):
you're clearly a person with lax morals. All that kind
of judginess goes on as well. The Foundation argues that
successive governments have done far too little to address the
underlying issues of what causes obesity. Only a fraction of
school canteens meet nutritional guidelines. The concentration of takeaways as

(02:02):
highest in the most deprived suburbs in New Zealand, so
the people who have the least amount of time to
prepare nutritional meals find themselves bombarded with takeaway stores just
around the corner. The Helen Clark Foundation wants to see
a healthier food environment, stricter rules for advertising junk food,

(02:25):
giving local government the power to control new unhealthy food
outlets similar to bottle stores and how they're allowed to operate,
and making the health style rating on food packaging mandatory.
Regulation can work. A soft Drinks levy introduced in the
UK in twenty sixteen has led to a thirty five
percent reduction in the total sugar sold over four years

(02:48):
and lowered hospital admissions for dental treatment, So that has
got to be good news. The Foundations also calling for
embedding healthier food across hospitals, schools, daycares and the lake,
and adopting and expanding new treatments like weight loss drugs.
For a while, it was the bariatric surgery. I know

(03:10):
so many people who've had it, and it's worked, for
the most part for them, like overwhelmingly it's worked for them.
Now there is it? A zen peck? Is that? That's
what it's called, isn't it? The ozen Peck and the
other related type injectibles are said to be an absolute
game changer when it comes to obesity basically, and putting

(03:32):
into really fundamental terms, the makers of a zenpec have
said people can not know when they're full. Not all people,
but there are a lot of people who don't know
when they're full. Their bodies have no trigger switch that says,
oh that's enough, stop with the injection. They take the

(03:59):
injection and they have something to eat, and their body says, oh,
that's enough, well done you. We've got enough nutrition to
get us through and so you know when to stop,
which sounds amazingly easy. And if that is all it is, yay,
it will make a huge difference. I mean, obviously, following
the logic that David Seymour applied to farmac, if you

(04:22):
can get people onto a zmpec or similar a weight
drug that regulates metabolism and regulates appetite, that has got
to be better in the long run than paying all
of the health bills further down the track. I would
love to hear from you from this one. I would

(04:44):
love to hear from those of you who have thought
about weight, struggled with weight, done something about weight. It
occupies far too much of our time, but it is
a very very real problem. I mean, look at the figures.
Obesity has overtaken smoking as the leading cause of and

(05:06):
disability in this country. We need to do something about it.
What do we do?

Speaker 1 (05:11):
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Talks at b from nine am weekdays, or follow the
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