on 22-11-2013 12:01 PM
The rapidly increasing number of overweight Australians has seen the country overtake Canada in the obesity rankings, with 28.3 percent of adults tipping the scales.
Australia is behind the United States, Mexico and New Zealand in the OECD's annual ‘Health at a Glance’ report.
Despite this, Australia ranks 18th when it comes to children being overweight, below the OECD average.
The OECD shows a negligible gender gap for obesity in Australia, while women in countries like Mexico, Chile, South Africa and Turkey are much more likely to be overweight.
India, Indonesia and China have the lowest rate of obesity in the OECD.
Australia is number one for fruit and vegetable consumption, while Finland, which has substantially fewer obese people, is at the bottom of the rankings.
Australia also has one of the lowest rates of smoking, with only 15 percent of people having a cigarette daily.
Life expectancy at birth in Australia is 82 years old, the seventh best in the OECD and two years higher than average.
Hmmm. I wish I'd read this before I had a slice of Christmas cake for my morning tea.
on 22-11-2013 06:07 PM
i missed a 'get' up there in my last post, lol
on 22-11-2013 06:26 PM
haha Joe, we just filled in the blanks and didnt even notice. lol
on 22-11-2013 06:30 PM
on 22-11-2013 06:35 PM
on 22-11-2013 07:01 PM
on 22-11-2013 08:13 PM
@*elizabeths-mum* wrote:
Since hitting 50 I've become a bit rolypoly and for someone has always been active and whose only weight problem was that she didn't conform to overly thin magazine ideals, I am surprised how quickly it came on and how very hard it is to shift.
Middle age spread...... can we call that a medical condition?
on 22-11-2013 08:23 PM
Watch 'the men who made us fat'......three episodes that cover the growth of fast food to the watering down of labelling laws and non fat low fat foods that are just as fatty.
There are stories from health advisors who wereyelled at by food company heads whenever they were invited to meetings for costing these companies money.
In the UK their pollies are too close to said fatty food makers and the reason obesity is a problem there.....according to the show.
Yes you need to be the one to control what you eat, but you should not be mislead.
There is a bill to be debated about 5 star ratings on healthyness. The UK had a traffic light system to rate sugar/fat/carbs and that was defeated by lobbyists.
Some companies voluntarily use it, most like coke and cadbury and nestle do noy.
on 22-11-2013 08:25 PM
mmmm........twisties and dip
on 22-11-2013 08:35 PM
I went shopping today and noticed the rather large number of obese people in the supermarket and I wondered "why is it so" until I looked their shopping trolleys and saw what they bought.
I suppose they think it was food, but it really wasn't. it was highly processed, high-sugar, high-fat junk food. Or at least a lot of it was.
And then I stopped wondering.
on 22-11-2013 08:36 PM