Obesity plan ‘too little too soon’ for stroke

Stroke Foundation media release, 23 October 2015

Obesity plan ‘too little too soon’ for stroke

The government’s obesity action plan is a case of too little too soon, says the Stroke Foundation. Targeting children and pregnant women, while having a laudable long term focus, ignores the million or more New Zealand adults already affected by obesity and its related health problems which include higher risk of stroke.

Stroke Foundation Chief Executive Mark Vivian said: ‘Although the government is to be commended for acknowledging the problems which childhood obesity is storing up for the future, it has failed to address the fact that we already have more than two million adults overweight of whom at least one million can be classified as obese. This is contributing to an ever-increasing number of strokes, especially amongst Māori and Pacifica.

‘The strategy of targeting children for intervention and neglecting the needs of adults who can and must also be helped to make healthier choices for themselves is flawed. It is adults, not children, who right now are having the strokes caused by lifestyle factors and we need to help them too.

‘The action plan itself incorporates many excellent health promotion interventions but ultimately adds little to existing initiatives. The significant omission from the plan is the active engagement of the food industry in reducing the sugar, fat and salt content of its products. It is simply not enough to educate and encourage people to make healthier choices when those choices are so heavily constricted by factors such as the cost, convenience and availability of unhealthy alternatives and the huge disparity between health promotion and food industry marketing budgets. No wonder the food industry has leapt to praise this action plan – it absolves them of any responsibility for the obesity epidemic.

‘It is difficult to believe the plan is based on consultation, as the government has claimed, when the general expert consensus is that successful strategies for tackling obesity must include real engagement with the food industry to change the formulation of its products.’

ENDS

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