[Obesity Discussion]

One of the Western world's greatest health issues, obesity, is to be tackled in Wairarapa by a new programme aimed at involving the whole community.

The Wairarapa District Health Board is spearheading the Healthy Eating, Healthy Action programme, a brainchild of Masterton Mayor Bob Francis, and the intention is to use community action to get results.

Manager of the Wairarapa Public Health Unit. Debi Lodge-Schnellenberg, who will be fronting the programme, said the plan is to use a similar model to that of the multi-agency Violence Free campaign.

She said the plan is still in its "embryonic stages", but an initial meeting has been held and 121 people have been invited to attend a workshop early next month.





Those people will represent groups with some influence in the community including supermarkets, the Heart Foundation, food producers, Maori health providers, Sport Wairarapa, SPARC, Plunket, Citizens Advice Bureau, the Cancer Society, and the Cameron Community House, among others.
The public will have a chance to contribute when the programme is up and running.

"It's like Violence Free, community action. It's about the community saying 'OK, what can we do? What do we need to do as a community to improve nutrition?'"

She said nutrition messages could often be very complex and as such difficult for people to implement in their lives. So the main aim of Healthy Eating, Healthy Action is to give people simple ways of improving nutrition.

"What we're trying to do is say things like if you are an employer putting on a morning tea, will you put a fruit platter next to the fruit bun?"

Another idea is to encourage people to turn off the television and eat dinner at the table.

"There was a study overseas where they said to a group of teenagers 'we don't care what you eat, have 19 burgers, but you have to eat at the table'. The teenagers all said OK, sat down at the dining room table, concentrated on what they were eating and ate less.

"If you're giving messages to people that are struggling to survive, they won't understand and follow them. They need to be simple so everyone can follow them.

"It's about creating a supportive environment."

Mr Francis said he became seriously mindful the obesity issue when in Britain a couple of years ago, and the idea for a collaborative approach to combat it stemmed from there.

"When I was in the UK 2½ years ago I read a series of articles on the issue in the UK, and it's horrendous really, the impact on young and old."

The significance of diabetes and other health problems caused by obesity, like heart disease and cancer, cannot be underestimated, he said.

"It's a massive issue, and we can ignore it or take action. And there are a number of things we can do quite easily."

He said New Zealand lifestyles tend to follow those of the United States and Britain, and with a recent study carried out by the US Centre for Disease Control estimating one in three US kids born in 2000 will develop diabetes, the issue here, while not as severe as in the US, requires urgent attention.

And this is especially true of Wairarapa, where obesity and diabetes rates are higher, according to a 2002 New Zealand health survey, than anywhere else in the country.

Just over 30 per cent of Maori and 20.5 per cent of non-Maori were considered obese.

Mr Francis said this programme addresses a quite different problem to that of Violence Free.

"It is a different situation, but what I'm quite keen on is if we work collectively and pool resources, we can make a difference.

"It is a long term project that will need a lot of energy and a lot of players."

The plan has the backing of Carterton and South Wairarapa councils.