Conclusion

In conclusion, obesity among children and adults is not in a healthy state and needs to be recognised. The government needs to step up and take a closer look in what they can do to prevent children and adult obesity in New Zealand.

Advertising on television and promotion of unhealthy foods are having detrimental effects on New Zealand children, with statistics only growing daily. This is supported by the World Health Organization, as they found that heavy marketing of energy-dense foods and fast-food outlets is a probable cause of obesity (World Health Organization, 2013). Grant and Bassin (2007) state that opponents of government regulations have claimed that, because obesity is a complex issue, attempts to single out and regulate marketing activities are both unfair and unlikely to succeed.

From carrying out this blog on obesity it has opened my eyes to how big this issue is. It has made me aware of all the implications that come from obesity and how easy it is to become obese. I still cannot believe how many people in New Zealand are categorised as obese. From researching obesity I now can say that I hope in the future I do not see myself in an obese state.

Throughout this blog I have discussed why obesity is an issue, what causes obesity and have identified the implications that obesity has on people’s lives. I have looked at how obesity is measured and talked about what the government is doing around obesity in New Zealand. An overview of responses from the government were explored with some critique and informed and insightful recommendations were proposed to address this issue effectively I have also looked at childhood obesity and the factors that are involved. I have identified the key issues of childhood obesity including relation to marketing communications. Lastly I have explored obesity in early childhood and the pedagogical implications for practice around obesity. I have drawn on information from books, website and databases to support my argument around obesity.

I leave you with this last paragraph stating, with the rapid rise in obesity throughout New Zealand, we can no longer sit back and assume that no action is needed to prevent this issue. If everyone continues to consume so many foods containing poor nutritional level with very minimal physical activity this issue will continue to grow. So the government, health professionals, families and schools need to work together to put a stop or minimise obesity in New Zealand.

References

Grant, B. C., & Bassin, S. (2007). The challenge of paediatric obesity: more rhetoric than action. Retrieved from http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/120-1260/2684/.

World Health Organization. (2013). Obesity and overweight. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/index.html

Obesity in Early Childhood

On my previous blog I left you with the questions what are early childhood centres doing about obesity in children? What is the teacher’s job to encourage healthy eating? And what can teachers do to prevent childhood obesity in early childhood centres? Throughout this blog I will cover all that and also discuss the pedagogical implications for practice around obesity in the early childhood setting.

As you may have read on my last blog obesity in children is a major issue! So therefore teachers need to be aware of this issue and make sure we do all we can to prevent obesity in children. Lumeng (2005) states that a “three year old obese child is nearly eight times as likely to become an overweight young adult as is a typically developing three year old” (p. 13). So what she is saying is that if a child is obese at three years old they are likely to be on the path to obesity in adulthood. So therefore it is very important children get a great start to life and the adults in their life encourage a healthy lifestyle. Eagle, Bulmer and De Bruin (2004) states that early childhood centres efforts have limited long term success on modifying health related behaviour and further intervention is urgently required. As such, Barnfather (2004) sated that many obesity interventions taking place throughout New Zealand were initiated by teachers concerns. From reading what Barnfather said it has got me thinking, if obesity is teachers concerns then what can teachers do to prevent obesity happening in our children at the early childhood centre? 

 

Pedagogical Implications!!

For a start teachers can implement physical activity into the curriculum and have it part of the daily routine. Barnfather (2004) proposes that early childhood centres role in physical activity and nutrition/lifestyle needs to be reassessed and strengthened.

Teachers can use a curriculum-based approach to influence positive eating patterns, reduce fat, salt and sugar consumption. Provide morning tea and afternoon tea and lunch so that the teachers know the children are getting healthy options why they are in their care. When it is lunch box day, teachers can encourage children to eat their healthy options first before there unhealthy options. Providing healthy choices and encouraging children to eat their healthy options comes under the strand wellbeing in te whariki where it states the childrens health is promoted. Te whariki states that in the early childhood centre children develop "knowledge about how to keep themselves healthy" (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 48).

Support and provide families and nga whanau with healthy home-cooked meals and nutritious low-fat snacks that appeal to children, including raw fruits and vegetables. Banfather (2004), and Block and Smith (2010) all argue that healthy habits start at home and the best way to fight and prevent childhood obesity and weight problems is to get the whole family on a healthier pathway.

Teachers can also model healthy eating choices and behaviours, if teachers eat with the children this gives them a chance to model healthy food. Lumeng (2005) states that adults can model by “eating the product while enthusiastically explaining to the child how yummy it is” (p. 16).

Many community responses included implementing healthy eating policies throughout all early childhood centres. Start Right Eat Right, n.d website states that this recommendation of action has already started taking place with many early childhood centres encouraging healthy policies in their centre every day. Early childhood services play an important role in meeting the nutritional needs of children while in their care. Therefore, Start Right Eat Right, n.d acknowledges that many aspects of the policies encourage appropriate food choices and reinforce nutritious food such as vegetables, fruit and foods containing calcium and iron. Opportunity’s to drink plenty of water needs to be encouraged at every meal time including lunch, morning and afternoon tea. In addition, all early childhood centres need to be encouraging children by giving them the opportunity to experience healthy, balanced, and nutritious meals/snacks (Start Right Eat Right, n.d.).

Many newspaper, magazines and communities support this healthy eating policy movement in early childhood centres as the reinforcement of children staying healthy and eating properly through a variety of inventions may help reduce the number of children diagnosed as being overweight or obese (Alden, 2010). However, Wilson, Watts, Signal and Thomson (2006) suggest that the government is doing little to support this movement and needs to support the movement by providing healthy foods, such as fresh fruit to centres, in order to promote clear, consistent, culturally appropriate, relevant, and accurate messages to children about healthy eating.

Is it our jobs as teachers to implement and encourage healthy eating in early childhood? I think yes defiantly!! As many children spend time in early childhood centres therefore it is important that teachers provide an environment that encourages and supports healthy eating for young children.

Early childhood centres can achieve a Healthy Heart Award from the healthy heart foundation and receive a certificate for the centre to say they took part and completed the healthy heart activities. It is fully funded by the Ministry of Health. It supports early childhood centres “to create an environment promoting healthy eating and physical activity to under 5s and their families” (Heart foundation, 2013, para. 1). The healthy heart programme provides a lot of support as each centre when they sign up has a Health Promotion Coordinator that works alongside the centre they provide “information and planning tolls for the implementation of healthier food choices and active movement” (Heart foundation, 2013, para. 1). There are seven criteria’s a centre has to meet before they can gain an award they are the following;

• “Provision of food; lunchbox guidelines or ECE service menu.
• A food and nutrition policy
• An physical activity policy
• Parent/whānau education
• Professional development
• Curriculum linked physical activity
• Curriculum linked food and nutrition activities” (Heart foundation, 2013, para. 3). .

The Ministry of Health alongside the government has put in place A background paper with "up-to-date nutrtion and physical activity policy based on current evidence considered for the New Zealand context" (Ministry of Health, 2012, p. 1). The background paper also provides useful information to back up the development of the strategic policy which aims to maintain optimal health for New Zealand children. This background paper "provides information to educate and encourage chidlren, young people and their families or whanau to follow healthy lifestyles" (Ministry of Health, 2012, p. iii). Not only have they put this paper into place to provide healhty lifestlyes but also prevent obesity and diet related diseases.  

I would like to leave you with this quote from Stanton and Hills (2004) which inspired me as a teacher to encourage healthy lifestyles in our children they state that "childhood is the best time to teach the next generation about physical activity and healthier eating habits and introducing stratagies to maximise participation levels would be a great investment in the health status of future generations" (p. 161).

References

Alden. A. (2010). Ways to stop obesity. Retrieved from http://www.livestrong.com/article/103317-stop-obesity-children/.

Barnfather, D. (2004). Childhood obesity prevention programmes in Auckland. Retrieved from http://www.arphs.govt.nz/...reports/.../Child_Obesity/Childhood_Obesity.pdf

Block, J., Smith, M. (2010). Childhood obesity and overweight kids: Helping your child reach and maintain a healthy weight. Retrieved from http://helpguide.org/mental/childhood_obesity.htm.

Heart foundation. (2013). The healthy heart award for early childhood education. Retrieved from http://www.heartfoundation.org.nz/programmes-resources/schools-and eces/healthy-heart-award

Lumeng, J. (2005). Zero to Three. What can we do to prevent childhood obesity? Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/child-development/.../vol_24-3b.pdf

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He Whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mōkopuna o Aotearoa/Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Ministry of Health. (2012). Food and nutrition guidelines for healthy children and young people (aged 2-18 years). A background paper. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Health.

Start Right Eat Right (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ncac.gov.au/policy_development/healthy_eating.pdf    

Stanton, R., & Hills, A. (2004). A matter of fat: Understanding and overcoming obesity in kids. Christchurch, New Zealand: Hazard Press.

Wilson, N., Watts, C., Signal, L, & Thomson, G. (2006). Acting upstream to control the obesity epidemic in New Zealand, 119(1231). Retrieved from ProQuest Central Database

Childhood Obesity

Leading on from my prior blog where I discussed how obesity is measured and what the is government doing about obesity in New Zealand. I am now going to examine childhood obesity throughout this blog.

Dehghan, Akhtar-Danesh and Merchant (2005) confirm that childhood obesity has reached epidemic levels in New Zealand as 14.3% of New Zealand children are considered to be obese with statistics indicating that it is expected to only increase. Taylor (2007) also states that obesity is deffently an issue for New Zealand children. She states that "1 in 10 youngsters aged 5 to 14 years years are considered to be obese" (para. 1).

Maher, Wilson and Signal (2005) claim that over the last twenty-five years, the occurrence of obesity has doubled in New Zealand with the National Children’s Nutrition Survey finding that 31% of New Zealand children were found to be overweight or obese.

The 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey found that:
• “One in twelve children (aged 2 to 14 years) were obese (8.3%).

• One in five children were overweight (20.9%).

• Adjusted for age, Pacific boys and girls were at least 2.5 times more likely to be obese than boys and girls in the total population
• Adjusted for age, Māori boys and girls were 1.5 times more likely to be obese than boys and girls in the total population

• There has been no change in the average (mean) BMI or the prevalence of obesity for children aged 5-14 years since 2002” (Ministry of health, 2011, para 2).

So why are so many of our children obese? What are the factors that are involved in childhood obesity? Maher, Wilson and Signal (2005) debate that there are many factors that is likely to be involved in the New Zealand and global obesity epidemic. One key component being the media environment, which encourages both overeating of energy dense food and physical inactivity through advisements on television, billboards and sale promotions. Hoek (2005) emphasises that the purpose of marketing food is a major in our society as they shape behaviour so it aligns more closely with marketers’ objectives. Hoek (2005) and Barnfarther (2004) argue that according to an experimental pilot study of children who were exposed to a number of advertisements on a videotape. Food advertising has had a significant effect on children’s behaviour. The study found that the exposed children were more likely to choose the advertised items than children who saw the same videotape without advisements (Hoek, 2005). Hoek (2005) further states that recent systematic reviews have also reported that there was good evidence that food advertising influences food preference and purchase behaviour in children.

In this study Hoek (2005) found that “overweight and obese children demonstrate heightened recognition of food advertisements and consume more food after exposure to such advertisements” (p. 5). Is this sending the message to our children that foods that are high in fat, salt, and sugar are consistent with a ‘normal diet’? Maher, Wilson, and Signal (2005) stress that when child behaviour is stimulated by “special offers, rewarded by additional benefits, and maintained by advertising that ensures the salience of promoted brands and products remains high, those behaviours become routine and habitual” (p. 1). Dehgan, Akhtar-Danesh, and Merchant (2004) state, fast foods are one of the most advertised products in marketing and children are often the targeted market. Is it the children’s fault or is it the parents we need to blame in letting our children eat these foods? Are we not meant to be role models to our children?

I feel that it is unethical to expose very young children to something that we know is damaging and that they are not capable of understanding. This is the rational for the restrictions many country’s place on advertising to children (Shaw, 2009). From observation I am not surprised that children are growing fat, because the environment is flooded with unhealthy messages confirming that foods high in fat, salt and sugar are consistent with a healthy diet. Barnfather (2004) argues “we don’t need another diet. We need a way to, make healthy eating and exercise unavoidable” (p. 1).

Kopelman, Caterson and Dietz (2010) state that if children are obese they are more likely to remain obese as an adult. Earlier recent studies have found that “less than a third of obese adults were obese in childhood” (p. 392). And more recent studies show that “over 75% of obese children remain obese as adults, and that they are more obese than adults with adult-onset obesity” (p. 392). Children that have two obese parents have an 80% chance of becoming obese.

Is obesity occurring in our children because of the lack of physical activity? Another factor that Stanton and Hills (2004) state is our children are growing “fatter as a result of doing less physical activity while consuming as much, or more from food and drinks” (p. 12).  I remember when I was a child I use to spend a lot of time outside playing with the neighbours, walked to the shop, played games such as backyard cricket and bulrush and  made huts. These days you do not see this happening in our children today maybe it is because our children or lazy or it is not safe anymore. 

Are our children becoming obese because of high in fat, salt and sugary foods are cheaper and there are a lot of these foods assessable these days? Many critics state that we are surrounded by the rhetoric of individual choice and self-control (Quigley & Watts, 2004). However, I believe that whether an individual chooses a healthy diet or not is influenced by the availability, affordability, and accessibility of food rather than that individual’s knowledge about healthy food choices. Quigley and Watts (2005) agree that choice is important but argues that the right to choose a healthy diet has been all but removed from children today. As “we live in a world where the saturation marketing/propaganda of unhealthy food is the normal and environments support unhealthy choices and yet we continue to be surprised that we are in an obesity epidemic” (p. 1).

Check out this video that the Unversity of Otago put together about the epidemic of Obesity in New Zealand. It talks about how obesity is extremely common and how the consequences of obesity is so bad especially all the diseases and illness that comes with obesity. They talk about all the takeawys that are available in society and state there are so many smells and signs telling us to eat!! One of the big factors they talk about to prevent obesity is environmental change. They state that there are many people that can encourage environmenal change such as employers and schools but they say the biggest environmental change can be provided by the government who can provide regulations or make laws to ensure appropriate

environments.

So I leave you with the questions stating, what are early childhood centres doing about obesity in children? And what are teachers jobs to help encourage healthy eating and prevent obesity in children?

References

Barnfather, D. (2004). Childhood obesity prevention programmes in Auckland. Retrieved from http://www.arphs.govt.nz/...reports/.../Child_Obesity/Childhood_Obesity.pdf.

Dehghan, M., Akhtar-Danesh, N., & Merchant, A. (2005). Childhood obesity prevalence and prevention. Retrieved from http://www.heartviews.org/article.asp?issn=1995-

Hoek, J. (2005). Marketing communications: A view from the dark side. Retrieved from https://nzma.org.nz/journal/118-1220/1608/.

Kopelman, P, G., Caterson, I. D., & Dietz, W. H. (2010). Clinical obesity in adults and children (3rd ed.). London, England: Blackwell Publishing Limited.

Maher, A., Wilson, N. & Signal, L. (2005). Advertising and availability of ‘obesogenic’ foods around New Zealand secondary schools: A pilot study. Retrieved from http://nzma.org.nz/journal/118-1218/1556/.

Ministry of Health, (2011). Obesity. Retrieved from http://www.health.govt.nz/our  work/diseases-conditions/obesity/obesity-questions-and-answers

Quigley, R., & Watt, C. (2005). Challenging beliefs about the marketing of food. Retrieved from http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/118-1218/1554/.

Start Right Eat Right (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ncac.gov.au/policy_development/healthy_eating.pdf.

Shaw, C. (2009). (Non)regulation of marketing of unhealthy food to children in New Zealand. Retrieved from http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/122-1288/3431/. 

Stanton, R., & Hills, A. (2004). A matter of fat: Understanding and overcoming obesity in kids. Christchurch, New Zealand: Hazard Press.

The obesity epidemic in New Zealand. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgKkBaXEvI8

Taylor, R. W. (2007). Obesity in New Zealand children a weighty issue, 120-1260. Retrieved from ProQuest Central Database.

How obesity is measured and what the government is doing about obesity in New Zealand!

Following on from my previous blog entry where I explained why obesity is an issue and what causes obesity. I am now going too briefly talk about how obesity is actually measured and then discuss what the government is doing about obesity in New Zealand.

The Ministry of Health (2011) state that obesity is measured by body mass index and is used to categorise underweight, overweight and obesity. They state that if you have a body mass index greater than 30 per cent you are classed as obese. “BMI is a measure of weight adjusted for height and is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres squared (kg/m2)” (Ministry of Health, 2011, para. 6). Stanton and Hills (2004) back this by stating that a way of measuring and assessing obesity in humans “uses a formula that includes calculating BMI from height and weight as well as measuring waist and skinfold thickness” (p. 11).

Government tackling obesity in New Zealand

In attempting to tackle rising numbers of obesity Franco, Michele, Jeremy and Dan (2009) state that "many governments have implemented a range of policies to promote healthy lifestyles" (para. 1). It was jointly anaylised by the OECD and the WHO as they aimed to strengthen their evidence-base information in regards to tackle unhealthy lifestyles. The analyis was aimed to be completed at a cost-effictive price. It was also aimed at "assessing the efficiency of a range of policy options to tackle unhealthy lifestyles and related chronic diseases" (Franco et al., 2009, para. 1).

Following are a few perspectives from different parties about what the government is doing about obesity in New Zealand.

In 2009 the green party stressed to the government that New Zealand’s obesity rate was the third highest in the nation. Sue Kedgley the Green Party Health Spokesperson stressed that obesity was a big issue in New Zealand and that the government needs to do something about it. They need to make fighting obesity one of their main priorities. Kedgley (2009) states that “it is estimated that there are over 8000 preventable deaths a year related to poor nutrition and obesity and the annual cost of obesity and diabetes to the health system has been estimated at $900 million dollars” (para. 6). In her report she stresses that it is just common sense that the government needs to spend more money on preventing illness. Kedgley (2009) states that if the government spends more money on preventing illness it will save money “in the long run by stopping serious conditions developing that require people to be hospitalized at great expense to the tax payer” (Kedgley, 2009, para. 7).

So what Sue Kedgley is saying is that if the government spends more time and money focusing on the health of New Zealanders there will be less of our tax money spent on hospitals, which I feel is a fair enough argument. But before we get too much into that I found in the Health Targets booklet that they are working towards health targets that will increase the chance of diabetes and reduce “avoidable hospital admissions” (Minister of Health, 2007, p. 38). They will measure the progress by reporting back to the DHB and to the government. The Minister of Health (2007) state that focusing on health inequalities will benefit all New Zealanders “where avoidable illness is reduced, costs are reduced, not only for hospital services but also for whānau members and employers” (Minister of Health, 2007, p. 39). Which I feel is a great direction to be going towards as the less sick people our country has the less stress it will put on family's, employers and hospitals as healthy people can make stronger contributions to New Zeland society.

But as I was reading more into this topic I came across the following information;
In 2010 Rebecca Todd put out an article about the governments lack of action on obesity. Todd (2010) also stated that New Zealand was the third most ranked obese nation in the world. As you may know from my previous blog entry that obesity causes many health conditions and this will leave hospitals over flowing with seriously ill people. “Experts believed obesity was the biggest health problem facing the nation, with a cost to the health system estimated at $500 million a year” (Todd, 2010, para. 4). In 2009 Health Minister “Tony Ryall dropped nutrition and physical activity from the Government's health targets” (Todd, 2010, para. 5). In 2009 the government also “axed funding for the Obesity Action Coalition, Healthy Eating Healthy Action regional co-ordinators and the healthy food in schools programme” (Todd, 2010, para. 6). Dr Robyn Toomath who is Fight the Obesity Epidemic spokeswoman states that “the Government had barely acknowledged obesity as an issue” (Todd, 2010, para. 7). As this infomation is seen as bias because it is from a news paper article from stuff.co.nz website. I have to question do you think that is true? Do you think the government has no clue that obesity is an issue in New Zealand?

As I was exploring more I found the following;

MP David Cunliffe from New Zealand Labour party talks about how the government is serious about attacking obesity in New Zealand. As part of the government’s commitment in attacking obesity they have made fruit available in schools to “57,000 school children and launched the $67 million Mission on Campaign in September 2006 which included guidelines for food services in schools” (Cunliffe, 2007, para. 3). One of their main strategies is to ensure that there is information around to help and remind people about how to eat healthy and healthy living. The government want people to be able to access the right information about staying healthy so they can look after themselves and their families. Cunliffe (2007) states that he is excited about what is planned for the future and states that “a key component for future planning and co-ordination would be the establishment of a cross sectorial ministerial committee to provide leadership and ensure a comprehensive and cohesive approach to the issue was being applied”. Cunliffe (2007) states that the government are committed to long term strategies to attack obesity in New Zealand and was looking forward to “leading a comprehensive and co-ordinated approach that would make a difference to the health of New Zealanders” (Cunliffe, 2007, para. 10).

The New Zealand Government and the Ministry of Health launched a booklet about health targets that they are working towards alongside with the Minister of Health. The health target eight talks about ways to reduce obesity. Target eight is about “improving nutrition, increasing physical activity, reducing obesity” (Minister of Health, 2007, p. lll).

So you might be thinking what are the government and the Minister of Health areas of focus and development for this target?

HEALTHY EATING – “healthy Action (HEHA) strategy is the governments multi-faceted, integrated response to improving nutrition, increasing physical activity and achieving healthy weight for all New Zealanders” (Minister of Health, 2007, p. 29). This includes outcomes and actions aiming on developing change in “food, nutrition and physical activity environments and behaviours” (Minister of Health, 2007, p. 29). It also includes “evaluation that considers the spread, mix and level of implementation effort and approaches; levels of effectiveness in achieving a broad range of the strategy’s intended outcomes; value for money of the strategy overall; and achievement of outcomes for the whole population as well as priory populations” (Minister of Health, 2007, p. 29). It also contains encouraging people to eat more vegetables and fruits. It also involves increasing the rates of woman breast feeding their babies as the Minister of Health (2007) state that research has shown that breast feeding donates positively to infants health an impacts and influences the chance of obesity later in life.

Following on from encouraging healthy eating one of Nationals policies is encouraging healthy lifestyles at school. “

National has out extra funding towards giving more kids the opportunity to participate in sport and physical activity through the kiwi sport programme” (Hamilton, 2011, p. 2). National states that they will carry on to support this programme. As they believe it reduces weight, “waist measurements and improves running ability” (Hamilton, 2011, p. 2). National want to improve and support healthy lifestyles at school as they will continue funding nutrition in schools proving fruit in schools to encourage children to adapt to healthy lifestyles and ensure that children get the best of life.

This brings me to think about obesity in childhood. How big of an issue is obesity in children? Do we need to look after our children as they are our future? I will leave you with this quote from Stranton and Hills (2004) where they state that “excess weight in children is becoming a major problem throughout the world excess weight is now as great a problem as undernutrition” (p. 7).

References

Cunliffe, D. (2007). Beehive.govt.nz – the official website of the New Zealand Government. Government serious about tackling obesity. Retrieved from http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-serious-about-tackling-obesity

Franco, S., Michele, C., Jeremy, L., & Dan, C. (2009). Improving lifestyles, tackling obesity: The health and economic impact of prevention strategies, 1,3-9,12-106(103). Retrieved from ProQuest Central Database.

Hamilton, G. (2011). Policy 2011. Health maternity and child health: Building better public services. Retrieved from http://www.national.org.nz/Policy.aspx

Kedgley, S. (2009). Green party of Aotearoa New Zealand. Report highlight government stupidity on obesity. Retrieved from http://www.greens.org.nz/press-releases/reporthighlights-government-stupidity-obesity

Minister of Health. (2007). Health targets: Moving towards healthier futures 2007/08. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Health.

Stranton, R. & Hills, A. (2004). A matter of fat: Understanding and overcoming obesity in kids. Sydney, Australia: Hazard Press.

Todd, R. (2010). National. Government criticised for lack of action on obesity Retrieved from http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/3907978/Govt-criticised-for-lack-ofaction-on-obesity

Why obesity is an issue and what casues obesity?

Following on from my previous blog entry when I stated what obesity is, I feel I need to explain why obesity is an issue and what causes obesity?

Firstly, I would like to start with stating the World Health Organization statment that “overweight and obesity are the fifth leading risk for global deaths. At least 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese” (World Health Organization, 2013, para. 4). Therefore, obesity is more of an issue than just a few kilograms over weight; it is a condition which can lead to stress on the body and ultimately to death. Obesity also can lead to a number of serious health issues. The Ministry of Health (2011) state that the health issues that come from obesity are the following; “type 2 diabetes, ischaemic heart disease (IHD), stroke, several common cancers, osteoarthritis, sleep apnoea and reproductive abnormalities” (Ministry of Health, 2011, para. 1). Shah (2010) also states that “obesity is a growing global health problem . . . and is a threat to human’s health” (para. 1). Obesity in New Zealand has become an important health concern in recent years with an increase in the number of people suffering with obesity in all ages and ethical groups.

I obtained the following facts from the facts sheet put together from the World Health Organization that was last updated in 2013. They state that:

• “Worldwide obesity has nearly doubled since 1980.

• In 2008, more than 1.4 billion adults, 20 and older, were overweight. Of these over 200 million men and nearly 300 million women were obese.

• 35% of adults aged 20 and over were overweight in 2008, and 11% were obese.
• 65% of the world's population live in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight.
• More than 40 million children under the age of five were overweight in 2011”.

A graph from the World Health Organization completed in 2007. New ZEaland has the second largest number of   overweight people in the Anglosphere (Wikipedia, n.d.).

With statistics worldwide I could go on forever so I am just going to focus on the statistics of obesity in New Zealand.

The Health Care Data 2009 report, completed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development team focused on New Zealand as one of their nations about obesity. They discovered that “the obesity rate among adults in New Zealand in 2007 was 26.5 per cent” (Eriksen, 2009, para. 4).  This figure compares with a reported “25 per cent obesity rate in New Zealand in 2003 and 18 per cent in 1997” (Eriksen, 2009, para. 4).

I found the following statistics from the Ministry of Health adult nutrition survey that they did in 2008/09.

They found that:

• “One in four adults (aged 15 years and over) were obese (27.8%)

• 44.7% of Maori adults were obese

• 57.9% of Pacific adults were obese

• There has been an increase in obesity in males from 17.0% in 1997 to 27.7% in 2008/09

• There has been an increase in obesity in females from 20.6% in 1997 to 27.8% in 2008/09” (Ministry of Health, 2011, para. 1).

2009/10

According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) (2009-2010), “approximately 69% of adults are obese” (National, Heart, Lung and Blood Institute”, 2012, para. 2).

2011

In 2011 the New Zealand Herald wrote an article stating that New Zealanders were not getting any slimmer. They found that around 63% were overweight or obese. Roy Morgan State of the Nation Report 3 discovered that “in September 2011, only 35 per cent of New Zealanders had a Body Mass Index indicating an acceptable weight” (Morgan, 2011, para. 2), this figure was 3 per cent down from 2009

Are not those statistics interesting? I would have never thought that so many people are categorized as being obese! You may now be thinking what causes obesity? So far I have researched that people become obese from consuming more calories that their body burns. For example, when you eat more junk food and do not exercise enough then your body stores the extra calories as fat.

The e medicine health website (2013) states that “if we overeat regularly, we gain weight, and if we continue to gain weight, we may become obese” (para. 1). As I was reading I came across other factors that contribute to obesity as everyone’s make up is different. Genes play a part in how you distribute and store fat as well as how your metabolism works. Also family history plays a role as usually obesity runs in the family; if one of your parents are obese you are more likely to be obese than someone whose parents are slim. Also emotions play a role in obesity as people usually overeat if they are bored, depressed or angry. Environmental factors, such as eating habits and the people around you influence the way you eat. Last of all, gender plays a role on obesity. Gender influences has always interested me e medicine health website states that men have more muscle than women. “Because muscle burns more calories than other types of tissue, men use more calories than women, even at rest. Thus, women are more likely than men to gain weight with the same calorie intake” (e medicine health website, 2013, para. 7). The Nation Institutes of Health also states that factors such environment, genes and family history, health conditions, emotional factors, smoking, age and lack of sleep play a role in obesity (“National, Heart, Lung and Blood Institute”, 2012).

From researching and reading about why obesity is an issue and what causes obesity, it brings me to ask how is obesity actually measured? And what is the government doing about obesity in New Zealand?
As Wilson, Watts, Signal and Thomson (2006) state that obesity is one of the largest concerns containing ill-health and "is an issue requiring urgent attention by government" (para. 2).

References

Eriksen, A., M. (2009). Kiwis third fattiest in new obesity report. The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10584289

e medicine health: experts for everyday emergencies. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.emedicinehealth.com/obesity/article_em.htm

Ministry of Health, (2011). Obesity. Retrieved from http://www.health.govt.nz/our  work/diseases-conditions/obesity/obesity-questions-and-answers

Morgan, R. (2011, December 18). New Zealand obesity rates climb. The New Zealand Herald.  Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10773892

National, Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. (2012). Why obesity is a health problem. Retrieved from

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/wecan/healthy  weight basics/obesity.htm                                                             

Shah, A. (2010). Global issues: Social, political, economic and environmental issues that affect us all. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/article/558/obesity

World Health Organization. (2013). Obesity and overweight. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/index.html

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Obesity in New Zealand. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_New_Zealand

Wilson, N., Watts, C., Signal, L, & Thomson, G. (2006). Acting upstream to control the obesity epidemic in New Zealand, 119(1231). Retrieved from ProQuest Central Database 

Obesity Introduction

Obesity

The social issue I have chosen to dicuss is obesity. I selected this issue because I have always been interested in nutrition and the issue obesity really interests me. I would like to explore it more and find out how big of an issue it really is in the New Zealand.

According to the World Heath Organizarion (WHO) "obesity and overweight have in the last decade become a global problem - back in 2005 approximately 1.6 billion adults over the of age 15+ were overweight, at least 400 million adults were obese and at least 20 million children under the age of 5 years were overweight" ("News Medical", n.d. para. 1).

So your probably thinking what is obesity? and what causes obesity?

Obesity is a medical condition and is when a person has a large amount of total body fat which can have a negative effect on their health.

Obesity occurs when a person consumes more calories then their body burns. This can come down to people eating bad foods and no exercise. There are also other factors that play a role in obesity. For example; age, gender, illness, genetics, environmental factors and medication.

I will be researching and exploring more about Obesity, drawing on information from databases and websites. I will be looking at what the government is doing about this issue. Also looking at the effect it has on Early Childhood and the pedagogical implications for practice in the Early Childhood setting. I look forward to looking more into this topic.

References
News Medical (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Obesity.aspx