Obesity Epidemic

I have mentioned several times that on my Italy trip I failed to see anyone obese. Three weeks walking kilometres every day and not a single obese person did I see. Then back living in New Zealand, I don't have to go far to find obesity, a simple trip to the supermarket and guess what, that's right, at least 25% of shoppers are obese. That's a problem.

I've been analysing this and one thing is for sure, the New Zealand diet is very bad but then a lot of what Italians eat is bad also. Italians have very sweet breakfasts, I find what they eat hard to consume at that time of day, and they love their soda drinks. They drink Coke all the time.

So what's up? How come Italians are in such better shape than Kiwis?

I think the following answers the question:

They don't consume as much in a day. That's right, the overall quantity of what goes into their stomachs is less. Italians eat a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Then their activity levels are higher. They joke that their involvement in sport is watching it on television but that doesn't quite address the point. Italians are doing things, not just sport related things. They're walking, shifting furniture, whatever.

And when it comes to the main meal, they eat less meat and a lot more vegetables. This is quite noticeable and is what stands out as the major difference with NZ (which is all meat and a few vegetables, and much larger quantities overall).

We are talking cultural factors. For NZ to solve its obesity epidemic means addressing the quantities being consumed and nutritional balance. That's a hard task given how entrenched habits have become. Small scale initiatives won't work, so forget school tuck shops and what they sell. A better approach would be to remove GST on certain foodstuffs, making healthier food more affordable, diverting consumers from less desirable foods.

Then get people moving, burning off the calories.