New data on Pacific obesity reflects a 'crisis' - academic

Transcript

An academic says the high rate of obesity in the Pacific is a crisis and should be treated by governments as a highly-dangerous epidemic.

The Global Burden of Disease Study, published in the Lancet medical journal, shows half of the adult population in Tonga is obese, making it the country with the highest proportion of obesity in the world.

It also says half of men in Tonga, and half of women in Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga and Samoa are obese.

A professor in Human Nutrition and Medicine at the University of Otago, Jim Mann, explained why the rate of obesity in the Pacific is so high.

JIM MANN: There's not one single cause of obesity, but basically it's an interaction of genes and an environment. Nobody will become obese if there isn't a genetic predisposition, but equally, nobody will become obese if the environment is not conducive to the kind of lifestyle that promotes obesity. High-fat products have been exported from New Zealand to the island states for quite a long time. Tinned meats, mutton flaps, turkey tails I think mainly come from the United States, but of course the McDonalds invasion has been rather more recent and sugary drinks, probably been around for some time, but that's increased a lot recently. There's no doubt there's been an escalation of obesity rates and inappropriate lifestyles in recent years.

MARY BAINES: Obviously this obesity issue is having a strain on public health systems in the Pacific. Do you think governments are doing enough to battle the issue?

JM: Well, I think a number of the governments have tried to do things but they are under tremendous pressure as a result of world trade agreements and from the food industry, so they are battling against the odds, there's no question. At least one of the Pacific states tried to stop the importing of some of these terrible foods, these mutton flaps and turkey tails, and fell foul of international trade agreements. So there's that pressure. The sugary drinks industry has been bombarding Pacific nations with very cheap, high-sugar beverages, very difficult to ban them. You know, it is a major epidemic. If one was dealing with a comparable epidemic of infectious disease, you'd have, you know, teams of people from the World Health Organisation, teams of people coming in to try and see how we can deal with this problem and yet we are actually dealing with a problem that's every bit as great as an epidemic of infectious disease, it's just happening a little bit more slowly. So it's not quite so obvious.

MB: So realistically, what can be done to turn the situation around?

JM: Well, the one thing that has been suggested as a relatively simple measure is taxation. And probably starting off with taxation on sugary drinks. Clearly, ongoing education programmes are essential, but education alone is not enough. You've got to be looking at the environment and how you can really make the environment more conducive to good choices. I mean, it is a mega problem.