Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Jacqui Southey: Save the Children Advocacy Director on the UN report into childhood obesity

Transcript

Jacqui Southey: Save the Children Advocacy Director on the UN report into childhood obesity · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: More children are now obese than they are underweight globally
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: nine point two percent underweight, nine point four percent considered
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: too big. Those numbers in the year two thousand, just
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: to give you some context, thirteen percent underweight and just
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: three percent obese. Jackie Saldy saved the children in New
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Zealand with us this morning. Jackie, good morning, Good morning, Ryansiz.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: What do you think when you hear that?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Deeply concerning and this is something that we need to
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: take urgent action on. Globally, one and twenty children under
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: five years of Asia under five are obese and this
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: rises to twenty percent of children aged five to nineteen
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: who are living with overweight and this is deeply concerning
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: and the direct results with the food environment that they
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: are growing up in.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Where are the kids that are obese? Which countries rich ones?
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Well, they're rich and poor now. And we're seeing this
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: spread globally other than Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: And this is a real problem because there's a food
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: environments change. Cheaply, ultra processed, aggressively market marketed foods at
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: children and adolescents is becoming more and more available. And
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: this is food that is really high in sugar, fats, salts, colors,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: and must size and flavors. It is not it is
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: not healthy food. It is not the fruits, vegetables and
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: meat or high protein options that we need to be
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: living on.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: How do you what proportion you said that it's poor
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: and rich and poor countries? Is do rich countries generally
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: have a bigger problem with obesity than poorer ones?
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Well, that was the pattern earlier, but this report shows
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: that those patterns are now changing and it is both rich. Well,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: it's middle income has really up in their obesity stats,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: but so have the poorer countries where we would not
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: have expected to see this, And this is because of
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: the importing of cheap, highly processed food that is now
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: it's easier to buy and cheaper to buyer than are
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: healthy unprocessed food.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: How do you stop that then, If it's you know,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: you could do regulations in wealthier countries, how on earth
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: do you stop them in poorer or middle income countries.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Well, again, it's about the regulation, it's about the food
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: that's being imported. In marketing, it's about those food production
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: systems making it affordable for farmers to be producing the
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: food in the first place, and then that you know
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: farm gate to plate concept where it's not going through
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: so many layers of process and profits and cost. It's
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: cost on cost, and so we need to make healthy
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: food accessible and more available, and it takes government systems
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: to do that. And then if we are allowing the
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: importing of really expect so really cheap food that's highly processed.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: It's shiny, it looks good, but actually when you look
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: at the back of the packet, it's full of sugar,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: salts and facts, but it might have fruits on the cover.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: It's just simply misleading. We need better education for parents
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: and children so they know what they're choosing and labeling
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: the big part of that. I mean, you've got to
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: look at the fine print on the back to see
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: how much sugar is in something, whereas we should have
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: how many tea springs of sugar are upfront easier to see, well,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: this is thirteen tea springs of sugar in it, and
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: a daily intake for child should only before.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Jackie, appreciate your time, Jackie Salvey from Save the Children
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: in New Zealand. For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: listen live to news talks. It'd be from five am weekdays,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.