Program cuts childhood obesity rate, researchers say
Researchers say a program in Colac in Victoria's south-west has managed to significantly cut obesity in children for the first time in the world.
The children monitored in the "Be Active Eat Well" program on average stayed a kilogram lighter and three centimetres slimmer around the waist compared to the control group they are being monitored against.
Around 1,800 children aged from two to 12-years took part in the four-year project.
Children also watched 20 per cent less television and drank almost 70 per cent fewer sweet drinks, while there was almost a 70 per cent increase in participation in after-school sport.
Parents have been shown how to buy and cook healthier foods and changes have been made in the food sold at school tuck-shops.
Even local take-away food shops have risen to the challenge.
Deakin University's Professor Boyd Swinburn, the director of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Obesity Prevention, says it is ground breaking.
"Not only to do this, the whole community approach, which was much more complex, but to able to see significant changes in weight over that period of time is really astounding," he said.
"These things do take quite a lot of time, which is why I'm impressed at the size of the changes that have occurred over a relatively short space of time."
Childhood Obesity Program