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.