Junk foods in Australia are under fire from some of the major health organisations (The Consumers Health Forum, Heart Foundation, Obesity Policy Coalition and Public Health Association of Australia) around the country. They have united in their common goal of attacking the number of obese people around this continent down under.
63% of the adult population in Australia are obese while one in four children are overweight or obese. After doing a survey with 1016 people, the organisations discovered that 85% of these people believe that unhealthy eating habits are a huge problem in Australia. Furthermore, 50% of the respondents agreed that the government should place a tax on junk food and another 77% believe it will be beneficial to have ‘health star system’ for junk food packaging.
The four organisations have gathered information about how much exercise it will take to burn off the calories taken in when eating these junk foods;
- A bag of potato crisps (45g, 491kj/serve) will take 20 mins running for women; 18 mins for men; 43 mins for 10-year-old to burn those calories off
- A Kit Kat Chunky (60g, 1320kj/serve) will take 29 minutes of running for women; 25 mins for men; 60 mins for 10-year-old to burn those calories off
The Junk Food Proposal
So the four organisations have proposed that;
- The Government quickly make the new health food stars rating system compulsory for packaged food products.
- To oppose the marketing of junk food to children on social media.
- To outlaw advertising of junk food during TV programs popular with children
- A tax on sugar-sweetened beverages
- Lower levels of sugar, fat and salts in processed food.
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