NZ Government cops flack over new obesity health statistics
Radio New Zealand News | Kate Gudsell | 11 December 2015
The government is being accused of being beholden to the junk food industry and the opposition says the country’s poorest children are paying the cost.
An annual snapshot of the nation’s health shows 31 percent of adults are now obese and problem drinking is increasing.
The Health Ministry’s Health Survey has found one in nine children aged two to 14 are obese.
Children living in the poorest neighbourhoods are five times more likely to be obese than those living in the most affluent.
More than five percent of the adult population is now morbidly obese, up from 3.4 percent five years ago.
Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said the statistics revealed how deep into the pockets of the junk food industry the government was.
They have dismantled so much of the good work that was done by the previous government in trying to improve children’s’ health. This National government will not regulate for children’s’ health and as a result we’re seeing these terrible statistics of increasing obesity for the very poorest.
