It is heartening to see that the government is looking seriously to address the issue of obesity by implementing a ‘traffic-light’ system for food.
It may be too simplistic (according to the critics) and our eyes might eventually glaze over (like health warnings on cigarette packs) but it’s a start in the right direction.
From anecdotal experience there are lots of stupid people out there who neither care or are aware of the harm they are doing by eating what they eat.
Then I had a bizarre thought – but I couldn’t help myself.
Just as bartenders aren’t allowed to serve alcohol to drunk patrons should there be a law preventing fast food outlets selling fast food to fat people?
These facts were printed on the Stuff website today:
- Obesity rates have doubled in the 15 years to 2003
- One in three children aged five to 14 is overweight or obese
- 500,000 adults are obese
- Obesity is linked to heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes
- The Government has allocated $76 million over four years to fight obesity
- Obesity cost the health system at least $247m in 2000-2001
- Type 2 diabetes cost taxpayers an estimated $540m last year and is predicted to rise to $1.78 billion by 2021 if the problem is unchecked.
When the idea of putting images of diseased lungs etc on cigarette packets was first put forward, I wondered if they were going to put images of 250kg girls in their bikinis on Maccas and KFC boxes. Hmm all this thinking makes me want a smoke and a pie.