Obesity in Australia

Pisco Sour

Before I came to Australia, a few Australians I met travelling told me that Australia has one of the highest obesity rates in the Western World. I didn't believe it for a second. This is a country which is undisputably the best sporting nation on the planet. Australia wins more Summer Olympic medals per capita than any other country in the world (barring the odd carribean nation here and there), and this doesnt even take into account the fact that the biggest sports in this country aren't even part of the Olympics: AFL, Cricket, Rugby Union, Rugby League. It's hard to find a sport that Australia doesnt excel at.

So why is such a sporting nation also one of the fattest in the world? It is something which boggles my mind. I always would consider such a strong high performance at elite sport as a result of high participation numbers (the more you have playing sport the more chance that some will make the top). However if you had such a large amount of people playing sport then you wouldn't have such a ridiculous amount of people in this country overweight and obese. The amount of disgracefully fat people you see on the trams, in work, and walking the streets of Melbourne each day is insane. I'd almost go so far to say it is almost as bad here as in the USA.

I've just never been able to put my finger on why such a sporting nation is also such a fat one.

Doc

I think that there can be a bit of a focus on being the best and if you’re not the best or really good at a sport then why bother.

The first flight I ever took from Melbourne was the first time I saw a stewardess giving out extra seatbelts to passengers because they couldn’t fit in the standard ones provided. So there defiantly are some large people here.

tooheysold

as an australian i'm deeply insulted by these accusations of .......
no look you re spot on.
it is ironic- i left the country a while and noticed the difference when i came back a few years later
the kids don't play cricket or footy in the strreet or on the local ovals anymore and seem stuck behind computer games and on internet fones- i think this can explain some of the obesity problems in the older ones as well
but you ll see us because of this drop off the centrestage of the sports world,yknow the podiums and the like.it's already happeneing.
fitness is a becoming a bit it of a diletante thing for snobs in the eastern suburbs- the work hours are increasing and encroaching on our lesiure time hours.i think using the gym is a bad individualist exercise-i'm for team sport,but the nature of our capitalist society is shortening our oppurtunites here for community.
because of our great assets,the excuses appear poor- the great wide open,the access to the great wide open,daylight saving,our sun etc
but i think it ll get worse

tooheysold

the kids i shoukld say are less inclined to play sport informally amongst themselves yknow muck around backyard cricket and muck around footy in the middle of the street/the cul de sacs-this was the aussie institution of sport that powered us thru the 80s and 90s.now sport insurance and "stranger danger" and computer technology has taken the roamance out of all that. we re turning them into robots

tooheysold

take away food is on the rise too.it's cheap,and its conveinient.it's huge in the pooorer suburbs because the rent on these places is lower the effoert doesnt have to be put in the expectaions are lower.
na big shame.its harder to find good affordable fruit shops in the western suburbs-or it may not be in yr face as much as the junk food.
the big fast food franchises can afford the extorionate rents in the shopping centres.there's less an incenticve to "experiment" with higher cost fresh foods- the labour involved with them.
$ is the disgrace- not the fat poor.

Cookie_Monster

they may in general be an outdoor active bunch of people but they also drink a **** load of booze and a lot of barbies, not exactly healthy stuff. as well as what's said above

The attitude towards general fitness from the gov is also appalling, they actively discourage cycling by making helmet use mandatory despite all international evidence as to societal impact on health and fitness. I was reading somewhere only yesterday that cycling rates dropped 30% as soon as that law came in...

Esse85

I can only speak for Perth.

What shocked me since I've been here is the amount of fast food on every corner, whether its hungry jacks, red rooster, macD's, KFC, subway, the list is endless. Cans and bottles are also bigger than in Ireland.
Alcohol is advertised in all the newspapers. With all the money here in Perth, I guess people are enjoying themselves more, eating out, buying expensive TV's.

More time spent in the workforce means less time doing exercise.

Peregrinus

Australian culture is basically hedonistic; pleasure-seeking is encouraged and approved. People play sport because they enjoy it - both the physical activity and the cameraderie - and they eat lots of cheap fatty salty junky food because they enjoy that too.

You can keep this up in your teens and twenties, but when advancing age and/or the pressures of work and family life lead you to reduce your participation in sport (or at least in the more active sports) if you don't adjust your caloric intake, obesity beckons. High rates of car ownership and a culture that celebrates drinking does the rest.

myflipflops

I had read about and heard about the obesity issue in Australia and it surprises me because I have not witnessed it much. Admittedly, I have not gotten a chance to get out of Melbourne very often but the population of the city here seems very fit. You can't move in the CBD without seeing joggers at any time of the day. In our office of a few hundred people, there are very few heavies (I am one!).

catbear

From what I've seen here so far I think it's a lot worse in Ireland.

Zambia

I am with Catbear activity rates here are actually very high.

Then again I used to live in Belfast home of the Pasty supper...

6ix

Funny enough this came up the other day at work, but there were no Aussies in the group so we didn't come to any useful conclusion. It does seem crazy though - I remember hearing about the obesity rate a few years ago and similar to you OP I was shocked and thought it must be wrong.

catbear wrote: »

From what I've seen here so far I think it's a lot worse in Ireland.

You might think so, but here's some WHO stats from 2007:



I'd sometimes feel that the activity rate seems higher but that's possibly because I'm in a city with roughly the population of Ireland so there are just a lot of people around full stop.

ellaq

I live in the heart of fat Australia (according to the graffitti that is on the boundary sign). And the lack of activity is getting worse. We are struggling to find women to join our sports groups and fitness classes and bootcamps are reducing in frequency due to lack of participants. However travel to a more affluent area of Perth and you will see busy gyms and slimmer bodies.

While exercise is a large focus in school unless you are in the top 3 kids you are not really given much merit. In this sports mad country it is all about recognition and medals. There isn't enough focus given to participation for the enjoyment of exercise alone.

Junk food is way too cheap in this country. And my kids school is one of the worst offenders. Ice-cream and slushies daily, eagle boy pizza for lunch and hamburgers. And this is for primary school children.

Judging by pictures I see on FB Ireland is not looking much better these days.

MrCreosote

"Sports mad" usually just means "I like watching sports on TV"

markymark21

I think Australia is a country of extremes. Your either surrounded by fitness fanatics or fatties


South Yarra -where I work seems to be more of the former rather than the latter

NoelAPM

Esse85 wrote: »

I can only speak for Perth.

What shocked me since I've been here is the amount of fast food on every corner, whether its hungry jacks, red rooster, macD's, KFC, subway, the list is endless. Cans and bottles are also bigger than in Ireland.
Alcohol is advertised in all the newspapers. With all the money here in Perth, I guess people are enjoying themselves more, eating out, buying expensive TV's.

More time spent in the workforce means less time doing exercise.

I agree... The amount of fast food is insane! And there all drive through! And a que out the car park wouldn't shock me at any time of day. Also the amount of pie shops and bakery's. And demand is huge for them!

The gas thing is tho there seems to be as many people running or cycling past the fast food as there is queuing for it!

catbear

I'd imagine Irelands share of overweight people has increased a good bit since 2007. I'm in the city where people tend to be active and haven't seen much of the suburbs so my image is complete.

Australia is a very car orientated culture.

Spot of Borg

Thing is our media makes out that obesity is more of a problem than it actually is. I live across the road from a school and I havent seen 1 fat kid yet. My sister works @ another school and there is 1 fat kid there. 1 (one).

If there was such an obesity "epidemic" then wouldn't there be more "kingsize" stores? Wouldn't the normal shops have higher sizes available? People go where the money is and it doesnt seem to be in selling oversized clothes.

Just a thought.

Spot

missbudget

Spot of Borg wrote:

If there was such an obesity "epidemic" then wouldn't there be more "kingsize" stores? Wouldn't the normal shops have higher sizes available? People go where the money is and it doesnt seem to be in selling oversized clothes.

But some of the shops have made the sizes bigger to accommodate the larger Australians! I have to buy the smallest pair of trousers available in Target or Big W (size 8) where in other stores a 10 or 12 would be sufficient.

No one I work with exercises. Their excuse is that it is just too hot to go outdoors (in Perth). They stare at me with wide eyes and open mouths when I take off to walk the 11 kms home in the evening in 38 degree heat!

JimmyCrackCorn

Spot of Borg wrote: »

Thing is our media makes out that obesity is more of a problem than it actually is. I live across the road from a school and I havent seen 1 fat kid yet. My sister works @ another school and there is 1 fat kid there. 1 (one).

If there was such an obesity "epidemic" then wouldn't there be more "kingsize" stores? Wouldn't the normal shops have higher sizes available? People go where the money is and it doesnt seem to be in selling oversized clothes.

Just a thought.

Spot

Would that not be related to your socio economic background.

As a trend health problems usually have an impact lower income groups.

That being said. Iv found tons of fast food outlets here. Iv also found tons of fruit, sushi, noodle, seafood outlets. My diet improved here dramatically.


In the areas I have been tend to be the eastern suburbs and Bondi which would not be considers poorer areas.

Spot of Borg

What? Why did you quote me? You didnt say anything relevant to anything i said? Was it a mistake?

As for socio-economic considerations I think the poorer people are generally fatter because they have to eat "poor people food" which is rice, pasta, cheap stuff like that. Fast food outlets are everywhere in the world. Personally I just ignore them. Those over-colorful hungry jacks ads certainly don't make me want a hungry jacks burger.

Spot

Peregrinus

JimmyCrackCorn wrote: »

Would that not be related to your socio economic background.

As a trend health problems usually have an impact lower income groups.

That being said. Iv found tons of fast food outlets here. Iv also found tons of fruit, sushi, noodle, seafood outlets. My diet improved here dramatically.

Just for the record:

Noodle outlets = unhealthy fast food. Sorry, but it's so.

(And "seafood outlets"; is that a euphemism for fish-and-chippers? )

Spot of Borg

"But some of the shops have made the sizes bigger to accommodate the larger Australians! I have to buy the smallest pair of trousers available in Target or Big W (size 8) where in other stores a 10 or 12 would be sufficient."

10 or 12 are not really large sizes though. Even 14-16 arent that large. The media is making out that is "obese" to make the statisics they want.

"No one I work with exercises. Their excuse is that it is just too hot to go outdoors (in Perth). They stare at me with wide eyes and open mouths when I take off to walk the 11 kms home in the evening in 38 degree heat"

I walk everywhere I go but I would think twice about walking 11km in 38C. I have to ask though - are these non-exercising people actually obese though?

Spot

ellaq

Has anyone noticed that in Perth there is no MacDonalds, KFC in the western suburbs, just 1 HJs. Yet move outside that high socio economic area and you are inundated with poor food choices.

Xavi6

ellaq wrote: »

Has anyone noticed that in Perth there is no MacDonalds, KFC in the western suburbs, just 1 HJs. Yet move outside that high socio economic area and you are inundated with poor food choices.

How west are you talking here? High Wycombe, Beechboro, Midland and Forrestfield all have McDonald's.

ellaq

Xavi6 wrote: »

How west are you talking here? High Wycombe, Beechboro, Midland and Forrestfield all have McDonald's.

Those suburbs are in the Eastern Suburbs. The Western Suburbs are the golden triangle from Nedlands down to Mosman Park.

Xavi6

ellaq wrote: »

Those suburbs are in the Eastern Suburbs. The Western Suburbs are the golden triangle from Nedlands down to Mosman Park.

Ha bloody hell, serious geography fail on my part! Jolimont and Palmyra would be the closest I'd say.

Interesting point, but there are as affluent areas in the northern suburbs that have plenty of fast food spots close by so I wonder if it's actually a conscious socio economic thing.

In Perth generally I find there's little middle ground, you're either fat or fit.

Coileach dearg

In Sydney, it's common to see people take the train from Town Hall to Wynyard!! Not certain what the exact distance is but I'd say it's less than a kilometer.
On the bus today, I saw people get on the bus at Taylor square and get off at Hyde Park (Cnr of Elizabeth & Bathurst St). These were men and women in their mid to late 20's. This really is shocking in everysense. It's quicker to walk it than wait in traffic, surely?
At the same time, I run over the Harbour bridge some days and the amount of joggers I see is unreal. At lunchtimes in the city lots of people from the office get out for a jog or walk from what I can see.
There's a huge park near where I live and I rarely see kids out playing sports in it. Somebody said earlier that if it's not organised sport, then there is no interest from kids.
When I was growing up it's no exaggeration that myself and my brothers and friends would be out playing football from when we got home from school til at was dark, no matter what way the weather was. Always active.
Maybe things are different now in Ireland too with more technology but where I grew up there seems to be lots sporting activity still.

The whole Australian obesity thing though is blown a bit out of proportion. Don't have the actual article but I thingkthe whole thing stems from a BMI study conducted a few years ago stating that Australia was the fattest in the world. From what I remember the media blew it all out of proportion and by the time the media were finished making a huge deal of it (as they do with things here), the same study was deemed to be flawed because BMI isn't a true indicator of obesity/health in general. Don't have time to find links but reckon that's where it all originated from.

Mellor

tooheysold wrote: »

i think using the gym is a bad individualist exercise-i'm for team sport,but the nature of our capitalist society is shortening our oppurtunites here for community.

That absolute nonsense.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with the gym or individual sports.
Team sport, individual, indoor, outdoor. They all have there place. If its not for you personally, that fine. Bad "bad exercise" is a ridiculous thing to say.

Spot of Borg wrote: »

Thing is our media makes out that obesity is more of a problem than it actually is. I live across the road from a school and I havent seen 1 fat kid yet. My sister works @ another school and there is 1 fat kid there. 1 (one).

What's your definition of fat?
I pass a school every day and see a few fats kids regularly.

If there was such an obesity "epidemic" then wouldn't there be more "kingsize" stores? Wouldn't the normal shops have higher sizes available? People go where the money is and it doesnt seem to be in selling oversized clothes.

Obese people can buy clothes without going to a kingsize store.
Obese isn't actually "that" fat, i pass obese people everyday. There are different classes of obesity. Maybe you are confusing obese with morbidly abese.

Coileach dearg wrote: »

In Sydney, it's common to see people take the train from Town Hall to Wynyard!! Not certain what the exact distance is but I'd say it's less than a kilometer.

That prob does happen. But I'd imagine that most of those people are changing trainlines as opposed to only going from Town Hall to Wynard only.
One is more acceptable than the other imo.

From what I remember the media blew it all out of proportion and by the time the media were finished making a huge deal of it (as they do with things here), the same study was deemed to be flawed because BMI isn't a true indicator of obesity/health in general. Don't have time to find links but reckon that's where it all originated from.

BMI for individuals is flawed as its simply uses "weight" with no difference between fat mass or muscle. Many athletes have an obese BMI, but are in great shape.
But in terms of large populations like countries, its a pretty good indicator of the shape of society as the individuals average out.
It's was originally designed to study society only, not individuals

Slidey

Had been out of this country for a few years before my recent return.

There is a lot of fatties here (Perth), don't know if it really is worse than at home.

I will admit, I was finding it a lot harder to do my couple of weekly runs before it cooled down in the last 2 weeks, but the locals should be used to the heat. I was coming from running in 2-3 deg in just singlet and shorts at home so there was a big climate shift for me.

I don't know how obese people can move about when it is properly hot, it must be so much harder carrying the extra weight and with chaffing (ewwwwww)

AngryHippie

I spent a few years working for a leisure company over here, and there is definitely a problem in areas with a lower income demographic, activity levels are far lower, and the availability of fast food (the big three) is far higher. There is sometimes a generational lack of motivation about healthiness, which I could only descrbie as a sort of fat bludger situation where an entire family ends up picking up sickly eating habits from a parent. tough cycle to break.
On the Flipside I also worked in areas where the vast majority of people walk, jog or cycle and triathalon and cross-fit participation are at mania levels...its a wierd concoction of extremes

secretambition

I think it's important to encourage both team and individual sports. I can fully see how people would enjoy the fun of being part of a team, but as someone with little natural sporting talent, I never found competitive team sports fun at all. However, I'm quite happy to go run, swim or cycle on my own. It's about having something for everyone, though I totally take the point that you need the numbers for a lot of activities.

Tigerandahalf

I'd agree with others re the BMI measurement. It is a very poor way of measuring whether people are unfit/overweight or not. I also hate the way people use the term 'fattie'. Why is there a need to say that?
I think the media have to take a share of the blame. There is too much of an emphasis on size rather than fitness. The Bomber Liston and Jimmy Keaveny would have been considered overweight if you used BMI measurements yet they were fit sportspeople. The emphasis should be on whether you are doing an exercise activity every week.

Mellor

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

I'd agree with others re the BMI measurement.

Not in terms of a whole country.
If a country has a high average BMI, then its very likely to reflect BF% levels and fitness levels.
Individual athletes could easily be fit, yet have an overweight BMI. But those peopel are the minority and aren't going to affect the average BMI a whole lot.