The Importance Of Childhood Obesity In Australia

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Reducing the prevalence of childhood obesity in local schools Childhood obesity rates have been increasing throughout the world for many years now and are predicted to continue to do so. In Australia over 25% of children are overweight, considering that 61% of the adult population is either overweight or obese too (1), finding a solution for obesity in its early stages has become an even greater focus. Dietary and lifestyle lessons learnt during childhood are often carrier into adulthood (2), creating an environment that provides a strong focus on healthy eating, such as one within a school, would play a large part in instilling these. To further enable this it is imperative that policies regarding the aversion of childhood obesity are implemented…show more content…
Children’s programs allocate 5 minutes for every 30 minutes to advertising, of which everything presented must be done so in a fair and truthful context(7), therefore food advertisement is done at a lesser extent. At the present time there is no regulation limiting whether or not unhealthy foods can be advertised during children’s programming (7). This is a drawback to the children’s advertising policy as effective commercials promoting the purchase of unhealthy foods continue to be aired. It can also be noted that children tend to watch a majority of television at night, 6-8.30pm (7), when these regulations don’t apply. Many countries around the world, including Sweden, Norway, Canada and Italy among others, have legislation banning advertising directed at children under the age of 12 altogether (7). As a result, children are free to watch programs free of absolutely any unhealthy food…show more content…
Australian Bureau of Statistics. Australian Social Trends, Sep 2009. Cat No 4102.0 Australian Bureau of Statistics. Canberra. 2009. 2. Obesity Policy Coalition. Submission to House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing: Inquiry into Obesity. Canberra: Obesity Policy Coalition. June 17 2008. 3. NSW Government. News Release: New Recipe for Healthy Students. NSW Government. April 30 2004. 4. Montague M. Public Health Nutrition Policy in organised settings for children aged 0-12: An overview of policy, knowledge and interventions. Victoria: VicHealth. 2002. 5. Strategic Inter-Governmental Nutrition Alliance of the National Public Health Traineeship. Eat Well Australia: An Agenda For Action for Public Health Nutrition. Department of Human Services: Victoria. 2000 6. heartfoundation.org.au [Eat Smart, Play Smart]. Australian Heart Foundation, [updated 2010 August 17; cited 2020 April 07]. Available from: http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/Healthy_Living/Healthy_Kids/Eat_Smart_Play_Smart/Pages/default.aspx 7. Jolly R. Marketing obesity? Junk food, advertising and kids. Research Paper no. 9 2010–11. Social Policy Section. Canberra: Parliament of Australia.

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