A growing body of evidence suggests being obese as a child or adolescent may have a larger effect on future health than previously thought. In a new meta-analysis of 63 studies including nearly 50,000…
Political responses to obesity have been more about creating a spectacle of “doing something” than solving the problem.
Bruce A Stockwell
There’s no doubt that obesity has received considerable political attention over the past decade. But data recently released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows Australians are losing…
New York City’s health board is cracking down on sugary soft drinks, but Australian health experts say more is required to address the obesity epidemic.
AAP
Australia should consider a healthy food rebate, tax on sugary drinks, and regulated portion sizes argue health experts, as New York pushes ahead with government regulation to address the obesity epidemic…
The combination of more access and busier lifestyles has likely contributed to increasing consumption of fast food.
Ben Weston
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) has just finished hearing submissions in a case against McDonald’s opening an outlet in the town of Tecoma. The case is part of a growing trend of…
Sucrose or sugar has two components – glucose and fructose. Glucose is present in virtually all naturally-occurring sweet foods and also exists as starch (although in a different chemical form, so it doesn’t…
Print advertising from the LiveLighter Western Australia’s anti-obesity campaign.
The most recent Australian anti-obesity measure, the West Australian LiveLighter campaign, features a series of shocking television advertisements, including one showing a middle-aged man in his kitchen…
Obesity can be seen as a carbon store on our waistlines originally sourced from coal mines and oil wells.
Bobcatnorth/Flickr
OBESE NATION: It’s time to admit it - Australia is becoming an obese nation. This series looks at how this has happened and more importantly, what we can do to stop the obesity epidemic. Today Anthony…
Pop a few undoit pills, and the fat in a slice of cake will pass out harmlessly at the other end - or so the company advertising the product claimed.
undoit.com.au
A company advertising a pill that “will ‘undo’ 5g of fat and 210g of carbs” must remove advertisements for the product and publish a retraction on its website, a review panel has ruled. The ruling against…
Labelling a person as “obese” may not always be helpful in prompting positive changes in behaviour.
HighContrast
OBESE NATION: It’s time to admit it - Australia is becoming an obese nation. Today we launch a series looking at how this has happened and, more importantly, what we can do to stop the obesity epidemic…
The poorest people in the world have the largest burden of disease.
Jon Baldock
Kate Taylor, The University of Melbourne and Rob Moodie, The University of Melbourne
A somewhat diverting paper on obesity came out earlier this week. It’s based on a cute idea – looking at what overweight people do to global resource requirements instead of the more traditional approach…
Many people blame laziness and ready access to attractive, energy-dense foods for the obesity epidemic.
modenadude/Flickr
Like politics, football and global warming, obesity is a topic that attracts huge attention in the media as well as talk on the street and in coffee lounges. This is not surprising since it is the most…
Establishing a bariatric register will provide confidence that bariatric surgery is safe.
flickr/Jacquiscloset
Around 2.6 million or 10% of Australians are obese. Obesity contributes to other diseases, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obstructive sleep apnoea, infertility, depression and cancer. The strength…
Fat discrimination may result from everyday values and practices we use to regulate our relationship to food and public life.
davehighbury/Flickr
The persecution of people for their weight is a serious problem that should be addressed by government and civil society. But the ideal of ending fat discrimination faces some profound difficulties. This…
There’s a tendency to believe that only obese people need to be educated about unhealthy and unnecessary foods.
Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity
Parents in Australia recently made headlines expressing frustration with a health-care system that confuses weight with health. They’ve been expressing their anger at two related, but separate, offenses…
Focussing on individual behaviour for preventing and managing obesity is simplistic and misleading.
Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity
Jessica L. Browne, Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes and Jane Speight, Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes
For anyone having doubts about overweight or obese people feeling blamed and shamed, the comments on a recent article about a positive image library should settle the matter. They clearly illustrate the…
The image library presents obese people in positive, natural poses. Here, Zoe prepares for work.
Isaac Brown
Discussions about obesity tend to focus on perceived health risks and the financial drain they pose to the health system. What’s less recognised is that the way we talk about obesity makes the social position…
If we’re to confront obesity and with any real impact, we need to examine the way modern lifestyles have dramatically altered our food intake and energy expenditure.
Darwin Bell
By 2025, it’s predicted that ⅔ of the Australian population aged over 25 will be overweight or obese if current trends continue. To paint the picture more crudely, it means that a person of normal weight…
The sooner we understand the risk factors that make children vulnerable to obesity, the more traction we can gain to reduce this number.
D. Sharon Pruitt
In Australia, girls in single-parent families are at a higher risk of being overweight or obese than children in dual-parent families. This fits with recent research findings from the United States showing…
The food industry has won this round but the traffic light labelling fight isn’t over yet.
IJClark
The Federal Government has defied expert advice and rejected a traffic light food labelling system for packaged foods, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to show it would give consumers the information…
SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney