We've slipped into the number two slot on yet another measure.
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Australia beats US to title of most obese nation, report finds
Obesity is now the biggest threat to the health of Australians, according to a new study
Paul Larter, in Brisbane
The ideal of an Antipodean, especially in the lead-up to an Olympic Games, may well be trim, taut and trouncing the opposition on the sporting field.
And in one field Australians are, unexpectedly, leading the field as the heavyweight champion of the world — with arguably a greater proportion of obese citizens even than the notoriously super-sized Americans.
A study released today demonstrates that Australia’s obesity epidemic has been considerably underestimated, with nine million adults — almost 60 per cent of the adult population — being overweight.
Described as the most thorough study of the problem in Australia for a decade, it also shows that 26 per cent of adults, or four million people, are obese. Researchers say that the once mid-ranking nation, in terms of obesity, now weighs in at the top.
“Based on the old data and self-reported surveys, we had thought that seven million adults were obese or overweight, but it is actually nine million,” Professor Simon Stewart, who led the research team, said. “That is a whole million more obese adults than we had thought.” The report, which comes in advance of a government inquiry into the epidemic, charted the height and weight of 14,000 adult Australians on a single day in 2005.
It shows that the middle-aged are the heaviest of all, with about seven in ten men and six in ten women aged 45 to 64 now registering a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or more — a definition of being overweight.
This is similar to the proportion of American adults who are overweight, but greater than in Britain, according to World Health Organisation figures. Professor Stewart said that if a study were carried out in the US in the same fashion as for Australia, Americans would likely be toppled as the heavyweight nation.
An overabundance of food, particularly that high in fat and sugar, together with significantly reduced levels of physical activity, are blamed for the expansion in waistlines.
An extra 700,000 heart-related hospital admissions were expected in the next 20 years related to obesity alone, with many more from diabetes and a variety of cancers. It is feared that almost 125,000 more people will die prematurely as a result.
The economic cost of obesity has previously been estimated at A$21 billion (£10vbillion) a year, including A$1.7 billion in lost productivity.
The report, Australia’s Future Fat Bomb, builds on calls for ever-more-extreme measures to counter the trend, advocating denial of surgery based on BMI.
“These are some of the controversial things we need to deal with because the healthcare system is going to be overwhelmed by weight-related hospitalisations from knee replacements through to heart attacks and strokes,” Professor Stewart, of the Baker Heart Research Institute in Melbourne, said.
Professor Ian Caterson, director of the Institute of Obesity, Nutrition and Exercise at the University of Sydney, agreed that such measures were necessary. “Governments have to start thinking outside the square because as we get fatter and older as a nation, things are just going to get worse,” he said. |
