Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Boyd Swinburn: Auckland University Nutrition Expert on the push for New Zealand to follow England in combating obesity rates

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Boyd Swinburn: Auckland University Nutrition Expert on the push for New Zealand to follow England in combating obesity rates · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Obesity rates in England have stabilized for the first time
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: in two decades. The number of children who are overweight
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: has fallen to the lowest level since two thousand, while
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: obesity rates and adults have remained stable for the past
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: five years. It's raised the issue back here as New
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Zealand still has the third highest adult obesity rate in
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  Speaker 1: the world, with one in three adult New Zealanders over
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: fifteen years classified as obese and one in ten children.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: It's just raised the issue here of what do we
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: do about it. Boyd Swinburne is the Professor of Population
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  Speaker 1: Nutrition LCIN University. Boyd, good morning, good morning, thanks for
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: being with me. What is the UK doing differently?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's interesting, you know, the UK have had nine
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: years of Tory government with quite a lot of chaos
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  Speaker 2: with Rexit and rulers, prime ministers and so on. Despite that,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: they have introduced a number of programs and policies and
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: things that do help to reduce childhood obesi. Whether that
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: all adds up to this flattening off and perhaps decline
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: as you say, but you know, they've put a sugary
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: drinks tax on several years ago, They've had the food
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: in schools and improving the quality of that. They have
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: just now introduced bands on junk food marketing to kids,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: you know, one of the first in the world. So
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: you know, they they have been actually quite progressive in
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  Speaker 2: their in their actions. Not the ban on junk food
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: marketing will have caused this change in prevalence of Obesian kids,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: but you know they have been remarkably progressive throughout this
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Tory government.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: What do you think is going to happen to us?
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Are we're just going to keep getting fatter? Like when
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: when do we reach peak fat?
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Or is it? Well, that's that's a good question. We're
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: we're slowly trickling up. This was a bit of a
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: bump up during COVID and and then it's then a
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: drop immediately after that. But we're going to keep bubbling
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: up until we do something about it. And this is
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: changes in the environment. I mean, we know what to do. Really,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: We've been told by WHO and expert committees and panels
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: all over the world about the priority policies to implement,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: but New Zealand just has not taken any of those steps.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Do you think we're getting smarter about knowing what we're
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: putting in our mouths. Apparently. I've read something the other
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: day about just how much ultra process food is in
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  Speaker 1: our supermarket. I mean we know this by now, We
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: know that coke's bad, we know all this stuff, surely.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't think that the fall in childhood obesity
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: in the UK is because they've found the kids have
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: found some willpower or something like that, because there is
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: a tendency to blame obesity on the individual. But these
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: fluctuations in these global patterns, they're caused by changes in
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: the environment and particularly around old processed foods.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: But we can all have a choice, can't we. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: we can be surrounded by myth or booze and not
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  Speaker 1: do it.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Well. We can, but what we're surrounded by makes it
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: easier or harder. And we're in creatures of our environment.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: We respond to And you know, at the moment, we
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: don't even know what proportion of our diets are ultra
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: process food but government judging by other countries is probably
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: about fifty percent, you know. So these are the foods
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: that have driven up obesity around the world. So nobody's saying, Okay,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: we're suddenly going to ban all ultra process foods. No
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: but let's get it down from fifty percent.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not a great number, is it. Professor. I
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: have to leave it there. Thank you very much for
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  Speaker 1: your time this morning, Professor Boyd Swinman Ultra Process.
• 3:52
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• 3:55
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• 3:56
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• 3:58
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