Obesity in Australia

Australia has now overtaken America to officially become the world's fattest nation with 26% of adults being classed as obese. That is 4 million Australians are considered obese while a further 5 million are overwieght. This is the biggest health crisis

Australia is facing at the moment and it is one that is easily remedied.

The report, Australia's Future 'Fat Bomb', from Melbourne's Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, was presented at the Federal Government's inquiry into obesity on June 20th.

This is a major health crisis with a predicted 123,000 premature deaths over the next two decades and health costs of $6 billion.

This has been caused by a major increase in fast food consumption and a drop in physical exercise. In the 1970s we drank 47 litres of soft drinks per person per annum but now we are consuming a whopping 113 litres. And, although we may not realise it, the fat content of our burgers has increased from 12 - 24grams to 24 - 41 grams. We also seem to have accepted that we get fatter as we get older with 70% of men and 60% of women aged 45 to 64 now classed as obese. About 1.5 million middle-aged Australians are obese and therefore at high risk of a heart attack or stroke in the longer term.

These figures are based on a study of more than 14,000 people at 100 rural and metropolitan sites in every Australian state and territory. Each had their Body Mass Index (BMI) recorded by having their weight, height and waist measured as part of a national blood pressure screening day last year.

However the BMI's reliability as a measure of fat has been questioned as it does not take into account the weight of muscle (muscle weighs more than fat). BMI is measured by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres squared. A BMI of over 25 is considered overweight while more than 30 is obese.

One of the author's of the report, Simon Stewart, has stated that, even taking into account the possible inaccuracies of the BMI's, there were still 3.6 million obese adults.

Simon went on to talk about the impact of obesity combined with other social trends.

"They're having children at an older age, if you're obese and you have a child do you really want to miss out on their wedding? Do you want to miss out on the key events in their life? Yes you will if you don't do something about your weight now."

If overweight Australians could lose five kilograms in five months, projected hospital admissions would be reduced by 27% and deaths by 34% over the next 20 years.

Australia also has the world's fastest growing rate of childhood obesity in the world and must make radical changes to the way unhealthy food according to one of one of Australia's leading obesity experts, Boyd Swinburn. He states that we need to stop junk food marketing to children.

Do we really want to be known as the World's Fattest Nation? C'mon, Aussies, c'mon - start taking steps to lose that five kilos!

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