Fight Child Obesity: Get Kids Off Their Butts

act-new-zealand

Wed Sep 03 2003 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Fight Child Obesity: Get Kids Off Their Butts

Wednesday, 3 September 2003, 11:46 pm
Press Release: ACT New Zealand

Calls to restrict fast food advertising, to combat child obesity, are totally outrageous - the most effective way to minimise risk of this problem is for parents to take responsibility for their children's lifestyle, ACT New Zealand Health Spokesman Heather Roy said today.

"Walking children to school and encouraging them to spend less time using TV or computers would prove more effective at reducing the risk of child obesity than simply placing the blame on fast food advertising," Mrs Roy said.

"This is underlined by a Japanese study involving thousands of children, which found that children's weight was directly proportional to the amount of time they spent watching TV. Japan is awash with advertising. Like New Zealand, Japan is a developed country - and our children lead similar lifestyles in regards to fast foods and inactivity.

"The fact is that sedentary lifestyle is the biggest contributor to child obesity. Children will get fat if they spend all their time sitting or lying around doing nothing more than watching TV or playing video games.

"Obesity is a lifestyle problem and, as such, is out of Government domain. Labour cannot, and should not, be expected to address such a problem. If Labour places restrictions on fast food advertising, I predict we will soon move closer to the Nanny State, where Labour makes all our lifestyle decisions - such as what we wear, and how we cut our hair," Mrs Roy said.

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