A Parliamentary committee looking at obesity has recommended, among other things, Government-funded stomach stapling operations and a national fat register.

In all there’s 19 recommendations, including the obligatory education campaigns, further discussion of tax incentives, and better regulation of the weight loss industry. But much of it is small arms in the face of this marching army.

Take a 360 degree spin around this intersection in on the southern outskirts of Sydney to see what health authorities are really up against.


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(Full props to the people on the bicycles, who will live long and healthy lives).

There’s fast-food enclaves like this all over the country and on certain days they’re like something out of a suburban noir film - people limited by poor transport, economic hardship and a lack of culinary education drowning in a vat of highly-saturated fat.

Which is why the really interesting recommendations from the committee have nothing to do with surgery and lard-arse league tables.

Recommendation 13 of the report is “that the Federal Government work with all levels of government and the private sector to develop nationally consistent urban planning guidelines, which focus on creating environments that encourage Australians to be healthy and active.”

But pedestrian-friendly suburbs means more than just decent footpaths and some green space. And its going to take more than the tax incentives discussed in Recommendation 10 to turn the lights green at intersections like the one above.

Chef Stephanie Alexander was on AM this morning making a different, but related point.

She’s set up a program, which the Committee examined, to teach primary school children to grow and cook their own food.

“I think that ignorance, and not being able to put a beautiful meal on the table for $10 for a family of four is because you don’t know how to handle raw ingredients,” Alexander said. “And I’m sorry sound so tough about this but I just believe it is the case.”

“We’re staring with the young, so they will be able to teach their children and they will live well themselves.”

She’s dead right. People who are intimidated by the fresh food section of the supermarket because no one ever taught them how to cook are going to find it sorely tempting to drag the kids to Red Rooster for dinner instead.

The “social marketing and education campaigns” contained in Recommendation 3 of the committee report are meaningless if they don’t include compulsory cooking classes for all high school students, regardless of where they live.

The Government might not be able to outlaw fast-food clusters, but they can help people who choose to escape them.

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16 comments

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    • Cynic says:

      10:50am | 02/06/09

      Your comment:Before you shoot down the fast food industry, remember how many people they employ (a lot being students trying to afford to go to university). Most people walking out of these restaurants are not obese. Is Australia a country of free choice or not?

    • Trevor says:

      11:13am | 02/06/09

      No one is dragged screaming and shouting into these fast food outlets. We all make a consious decision to eat there and if some over do it and it aides in their becoming obese it is not the fault of the outlet but the person or parents involved.
      If you don’t eat it you won’t wear it, simple as that.

    • Dean says:

      11:47am | 02/06/09

      Instead of spending money on stapling stomachs, how about some better information starting at school, government subsidised cooking classes - something a bit more permanent than a staple that can just be eaten or popped out..  It’s ridiculous to blame fast food outlets, as Trevor says they don’t drag you in… I live in a low socio-economic area, there are 5 outlets within a 6 min walk or 2 min drive - the prices are higher here than in other areas because they do so much more business… education is the key, it’s actually cheaper to make a healthy meal at home these days anyway..

    • David C says:

      12:04pm | 02/06/09

      Yes, provide education from a young age and let people make their own choices, let people take responsibility for their own lives.
      Where will this growing nanny state stop???

    • Peter McFarlane says:

      12:05pm | 02/06/09

      Lap-banding surgery for the morbidly obese - “one of the last bastions of discrimination in our community”! So what’s next? Gender reassignment for women? Femur extensions for the vertically challenged? Hair transplants for red heads? Plastic surgery for our Asiatic cousins? Skin bleaching for our pigmented friends? Can’t we rest until Australian society achieves the desired state of homogeneity?

    • mair says:

      01:13pm | 02/06/09

      I applaud Stephanie Alexander and her work to educate children about food. I agree, it’s down to personal choice as to what people put in their mouths. But I don’t think it would hurt to have some healthier options in amongst the fast food outlets.
      And in all honesty, if it was that simple for people to do, there wouldn’t be a billion dollar weight loss industry.
      Lap-banding surgery is a great solution for many overweight people. But it only has a lasting effect if the surgery is followed by a major change in eating and exercise habits.
      There are thousands of options for people to lose weight. But the majority of these solutions concentrate on how to get the weight off, and don’t consider how to keep it off once it’s gone.
      The maintenance of weight loss is an important part of the discussion that often gets overlooked.

    • Anthony says:

      01:26pm | 02/06/09

      Yeah, let the taxpayers pay for it, but only if they make the procedure compulsory.  Next we can get to work on the ugly.

    • Richard Ure says:

      01:44pm | 02/06/09

      Eastwood (NSW) has “been overrun by Asians” and MacDonalds and KFC have closed. Meanwhile a fruit shop has opened which, at times, is almost impossible to enter given the crowds it attracts. Coles fresh food areas in adjoining Epping can sometime be devoid of customers. Compare and contrast.

    • halberstram says:

      03:56pm | 02/06/09

      Hey, leave Leumeah alone. It’s the home of the mighty Wests Tigers so mind your manners !

    • Academic says:

      04:34pm | 02/06/09

      I eat the occasional fast food meal.  I’m still a size 8.  I go to the gym.  And for the large part I eat pretty healthy food.  I don’t see why I should be forced to pay for people to have medical treatment for their incredibly poor lifestyle choices (I have the same issue with smokers).  If people are morbidly obese for genuine medical reasons, I don’t have a problem with funding being provided for their treatment.  And adding a “fast food tax” just further punishes those of us who take care of ourselves but eat the occasional KFC or Burger King.

    • Bob Simpson says:

      04:50pm | 02/06/09

      There is not one mention of “personal responsibility amongst the recommendations. Maybe that’s where the politicians should start; advising parents to look after there children better.

    • Sam Mangan says:

      11:13pm | 02/06/09

      As cynic pointed out there would be major repercussions to closing down fast food chains. For example McDonalds who alone purchase around 75% of its meat from Australian farms and that lose would be catastrophic to our already declining farming sector.

      Aside from that however, the people who choose to eat this food are doing simply that, choosing to eat it. Advertising is one thing but we are still choosing to consume the food. I personally enjoy an occasional meal from locations such as KFC and McDonalds and find it reprehensible that people want to turn around now and blame someone else. I know that I chose to eat that rather than something healthy and I will take the blame for gaining weight.

      I do however agree with some of the other posters in their opinion that if someone has a legitimate medical issue then by all means lets get them the help they need, but we need to be careful we don’t let the definition of ’ medical issue’ get bloated (pardon the pun).

      The biggest issue still remains where is the government? Showing kids how to make a face from vegetables? That simply shows them if they want to exert more energy you can make a familiar image…...that is simply not compelling enough to compete with a cheeseburger and irresistible toy that accompanies it. Maybe it is time the Federal Government get a new marketing team!

    • regina says:

      11:14pm | 02/06/09

      what an extraordinary report.  i’m already imagining the many meetings, conferences, community consultations, one-on-one meetings – and the trolley loads of food and drink wheeled in to keep one and all fed and happy - that took to produce the report.  there was probably also a public launch, with suitably impressive healthy catering.

      well , they could have saved all their money and just asked me, because i know why people eat unhealthily and are obese.  it’s this:  they are overworked, underpaid, stressed, missing meals, cramming food between meetings, on the way home, on the way to school, with no time to cook or shop, they are depressed, unemployed, spending their money on alcohol to get them through the day ...

      and then there are the chronic underlying problems of poverty and lack of education.

      so how does the committee propose to deal with all of this?  by commissioning stephanie alexander or some other worthy foodie to teach little ones how to grow beets, and then (not) eat them.  genius!

      personally i’ve never taken my family to red rooster for dinner (although they have had their fair share of charcoal chickens) but i would defend to the death the right of people to eat where they wish.  with apologies to voltaire who was probably rakish thin, and not the least bit obese.

      really, it’s enough to make a grown women reach for a cupcake.  or should i be diving into a tub of low-fat yoghurt instead?  mr rudd, ms alexander .. anyone?

    • Woody says:

      10:09am | 03/06/09

      Why doesn’t Nicola Roxon introduce a fatty’s version of the Alcopop tax?

    • thatmosis says:

      07:43am | 06/09/10

      Obesity is fast becoming the new Smoking. How long before people who are obese are forced to pay extra to sit on a plane, train or automobile or even in a cafe. They will become the unclean of the 21st century, vilified as smokers have been and rejected from polite society and in most cases it will serve them right. Have a good look around at the men and women walking the isles of the supermarket and look into the trolleys of the obese people at their choices of “food”. The amount of fat and sugars in their food choices is unreal with soft drinks lollies in great abundance. Hope this revolution comes soon as the “new” shape that seems to be creeping in is to say the least unflattering and unhealthy.

    • PW says:

      06:55pm | 13/06/11

      You can eat KFC, Maccas and Hungry Jacks every meal. If you do enough exercise you won’t get fat. Trouble is, most don’t. The main culprit in the obesity crisis is not Maccas or Hungry Jacks, it is our good friend the Car.

      The cyclists shown here may live long healthy lives, if they are lucky enough not to be struck by cars in the meantime.

 

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