Refugees settling in Australia constantly face new challenges. They have to re-adjust to new income levels, cultural practices and language. They also face a new food environment, where many traditional…
Seeing pictures of preened celebrities, or even slimmer friends, makes many wish that their arms were that little bit thinner or abs more tightly toned. Most of us have an existing desire to be a normal…
Australia tops the world for physical activity-friendly built environments but ranks second last for levels of children’s activity.
drpavlof/Flickr
If we could go back 100 years in a time machine, what would kids be like? They’d be shorter, leaner, probably dirtier and less well-fed — but would they be fitter? It turns out we actually have a beautiful…
Big Food in Australia is not the same as the industry in the United States, where much of the popular media has come from.
Steven Caddy/Flickr
Criticism of the food industry has itself become a niche industry. But the tendency to embrace a US-centric conception of how the industry works risks masking local variants and inhibiting a targeted response…
Most Australians already fail to meet the recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables.
Strikkelise/Flickr
Recent calls by Australian government ministers and senior officials to broaden the goods and services tax (GST) base to include fresh fruit and vegetables would make the population’s diet go from bad…
A small proportion of overweight and obese people are metabolically healthy but that doesn’t mean we should become complacent about aiming for a healthy weight.
Isaac Brown/Stocky Bodies
The idea that people can be healthy at any weight has gained credence in recent years, despite widespread evidence that obesity creates health risks. While the idea is attractive, it’s also dangerous because…
In the past, when infections were the dominant form of disease and death, and humans didn’t understand how they spread, an epidemic ended when enough people had died that there were no more potential victims…
Our changing food environment has undermined our capacity to be responsible in the first place.
Shutterstock
In 1980 just 10% of Australian adults were obese; by 2012 this figure had risen to 25%, among the highest in the world. The food industry lobby and their friends in government would have us believe this…
Trans fats are used in highly-processed foods such as biscuits, pastries, and fast food.
Flickr/crimfants
The increased supply and marketing of processed food high in fat, sugar and salt are recognised as the major drivers of obesity and diet-related diseases globally. As part of efforts to improve the healthiness…
Prioritising physical activity and healthy eating is having a positive impact on childhood obesity in the United States.
Korean Resource Center/Flickr
Childhood obesity prevalence is alarmingly high in many developed countries; in Australia, one in four children is overweight or obese, while in the United States, it’s one in three. But recent American…
There’s no need to temper our efforts to address the obesity epidemic just yet.
Image from shutterstock.com
We’ve long known that too much excess weight increases your likelihood of dying prematurely. Or does it? A large review of the evidence published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA…
There’s support for a causal role of carbohydrate-rich diets in the obesity epidemic but such diets also tend to be rich in calories.
Felix Cohen
An article published recently in the BMJ argues that we have been pursuing the wrong hypothesis on the causes of obesity. Along with substandard science, this wrongheadedness has apparently exacerbated…
Stories on street harassment are popping up across the fat-o-sphere. Popular bloggers such as the Fat Heffalump are sharing their stories; and Adipositivity Project founder Substantia Jones has created…
Many proposed measures for curbing obesity around the work are aimed at restricting the intake sugar from soft drinks.
Robert Huffstutter
Merely two months into the new year and we have already seen a plethora of local and international efforts aimed at curbing what appears to be the inexorable rise of obesity. Some of these initiatives…
Overweight pets have become collateral casualties in the ongoing war against human obesity.
MrTGT/Flickr
A study published this morning in Nature offers further insight into how dogs became domesticated. The comparative analysis of human, canine and wolf genomes suggests that humans and dogs have evolved…
Christmas is a time of plenty - but to ensure we keep eating well in the future, it’s time to rethink the way we buy and produce food.
Barbeque image from www.shutterstock.com
As we gather to share a meal with friends and family this festive season, it is the ideal time to reflect on our relationship with food, including our dependence on those who grow it for us. Australians…
We are surrounded by energy-dense foods that result in a positive energy balance.
lordwikket/Flickr
The policies and public health strategies that we have implemented are proving inadequate for controlling the global epidemic of obesity. An effective approach may be for governments to implement radical…
The move to end the tax appears to be a political one.
Sam Howzit
Denmark has scrapped the world’s first “fat tax”, which was charged on foods high in saturated fats, after just one year. Plans to introduce a tax on sugar have also been abandoned. In making the announcement…
Sugary drinks are one culprit leading to children consuming too much sugar.
Graham Reznick
More than half of young Australians are consuming too much sugar, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Wollongong and University of Sydney. The research, which was presented at…
SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney