Experts divided over obesity issue
January 25, 2007 - 12:09PM
Australians aren't getting fatter at all, according to a group of academics who claim the obesity epidemic is a money-wasting illusion.
National and international researchers will convene in NSW on Thursday to argue that statistics supporting obesity and its health consequences are much more uncertain than people realise.
However, the concept has been met with intense criticism from a leading diabetes expert who says it "comes from another planet".
The conference organiser, Jan Wright, says the commonly reported belief that Australians are generally fat, and growing all the time, is a "beat-up" with its own agenda.
"There's no epidemic," says Professor Wright, associate dean of education at the University of Wollongong, which will host the event.
"There's not these radical increases in terms of overweight and obesity like everybody thinks, so the entire argument is wrong from the start."
Prof Wright says there is no longitudinal figures to support expanding waistlines and most calculations rely on the Body Mass Index (BMI), not an accurate marker of obesity.
"Using that scale, the entire All Black team would register as obese, so that can't be right."
She said many industries - especially fitness, food and pharmaceuticals - have a vested interest in perpetuating the obesity "myth" because they can make money out of the solutions.
Many scientists also support the concept because, says Prof Wright, there is a huge amount of funding thrown at the area by governments.
"Money is a huge motivator for people to support the position that there is an obesity epidemic," she said, "but millions of dollars are being wasted".
During the three-day conference, called Bio-pedagogies, academics, including people from the UK, Canada and New Zealand, will develop a plan to stay the momentum of the obesity argument, she said.
But Paul Zimmet, director of the International Diabetes Institute, immediately discounted the "myth" concept as "from another planet".
"We conduct the national Australian diabetes and obesity study and there's no question from the data that obesity is on the increase," Professor Zimmet said.
"There's no illusion here, no scare-mongering - this is really wrong."
Obesity in Australia
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