Fight the Obesity Epidemic

US: TV Ads Linked to Unhealthy Diets in Young Adults

Robin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:00:09 +0000

Fast food and alcohol advertising on television have a negative influence on young people’s weight and underage drinking, researchers say.

US: How Washington went soft on childhood obesity

Robin — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 21:52:12 +0000

“In the political arena, one side is winning the war on child obesity. The side with the fattest wallets.”

An excellent piece on how the US government is influenced by agressive lobbying from the food and beverage industries.

Obesity News 160

Robin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:00:46 +0000

Obesity News is FOE’s regular round-up of news relating to obesity-prevention from around the world.

Read the 26 April 2012 issue

NZ: ANZ Obesity Society Conference, October 2012

Robin — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:37:11 +0000

Aucland is hosting Australia NZ Obesity Society’s annual scientific meeting this October. Early bird registration now open.

Find out more about the ANZOS 2012 conference

Obesity News 159

Robin — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:06:59 +0000

Obesity News is FOE’s regular round-up of obesity-prevention news from around the world.

Read the 4 April 2012 issue

US: Effectiveness of Front of Package Food Labelling Systems

Robin — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:01:19 +0000

The British Multiple Traffic Light front-of-package labelling system has red, yellow, and green symbols. They show which foods to eat sparingly, in moderation, or freely. A new review shows this system best helps consumers identify healthier products.

Read the research: Public Health Nutrition, Online 7 Feb 2012 (PDF)

Read more about the research: Rudd Radar, 9 Apr 2012

NZ: Milo diverts attention to physical activity in new marketing campaign

Robin — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 01:16:46 +0000

Milo PLAY Movement

A report commissioned by food manufacturer Nestle Milo has been getting a lot of media coverage recently. It claims to show that “nearly 1 in 2 (46%) children don’t play every day.”

The report is so shoddy that it doesn’t even give the question asked to obtain this finding, let alone say whether it was the children, parents or grandparents included in the survey who provided the data.

This is part of a clever marketing campaign by Nestle Milo. They are “calling for New Zealand families to come together and incorporate active play into each and every day” and have also launched a Facebook page where they claim to be “the official drink of play”.

While we totally support kids being involved in active, unstructured play, we would be more excited if Nestle Milo, as a food company, addressed food issues and the amount of sugar in its products, rather than focusing on physical activity. After all:

Milo “energy food drink” is 46 percent sugar. And – another physical activity connection – it’s sponsored by NZ Cricket (source: Robin’s pantry);
children’s breakfast cereal Nestle Milo is 27.2% sugar (source: Supermarket packet).

Read ‘The New Zealand State of Play report’

Some of the media coverage

Milo positions itself as the official drink of play in new ‘Play Movement’ campaign

Creative advertising trade magazine Campaign Brief outlines Milo’s new campaign and asks readers to vote if they think it is a clever strategy by Milo.

Source: Campaign Brief.co.nz, 12 Mar 2012

Kids miss out on vital play time

Source: NZ Herald, 12 March 2012

NZ: State to trim fat by targeting mums-to–be in obesity battle

Robin — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:26:56 +0000

State to target mums-to-be
The government is set to reduce funding for adult nutrition programmes and will instead target pregnant women to tackle the obesity crisis.

FOE says: nothing wrong in targeting future mums, but again the focus is on ineffective education rather than changing the food environment to make healthy choices easier.

Read more: Dominion Post/Stuff, 10 Mar 2012

Fat, fate and disease – giving up on a generation?
Green Party MP, Kevin Hague, comments on the proposed changes to nutrition funding by the Ministry of Health. He has three strong arguments for continuing to fund existing nutrition programmes as well as targeting parents-to-be.
Read more: Green Party Frogblog, 13 March 2012

Obesity News 158

Robin — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 01:25:38 +0000

Obesity News is FOE’s regular round-up of obesity-prevention news from around the world.

Read the 12 March 2012 issue

Australian and NZ stakeholders divided on nutrition labelling

Robin — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 01:34:15 +0000

Nutrition Labelling: Australia NZ highlight stakeholder division
This ‘management briefing’ looks at the debate between industry, government and campaigners in Australia and New Zealand on what to put on front-of-pack nutrition labels.