Hard-pressed parents cannot take all of the responsibility for preventing their children from becoming overweight, a Ministry of Health programme manager, Cynthia Maling, said in Dunedin yesterday.
Mrs Maling, who is the national manager for the ministry's Healthy Eating-Healthy Action programme, and ministry chief advisers Dr Pat Tuohy and Dr Sandy Dawson discussed national prevention and treatment strategies during an obesity and diabetes symposium in Dunedin yesterday.
Organised by the University of Otago's Edgar National Centre for Diabetes Research, the symposium asked "Are We Doing Enough?" about obesity and diabetes.
Obesity is closely linked with higher diabetes risks, and particularly the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
A programme newsletter noted that two out of five deaths in New Zealand each year - amounting to about 11,000 a year - resulted from nutrition-related risk factors.
These included high cholesterol, reflecting mainly saturated-fat intake; high blood-pressure, associated with high salt intake; being overweight or obese, and inadequate vegetable and fruit intake.
Of those 11,000 deaths, 8000-9000 were likely to result from dietary factors alone, while the remaining 2000-3000 arose from insufficient physical activity, the newsletter said.
Mrs Maling said there was "huge room for more" to be done to counter obesity problems.
However, further action was needed throughout society, including in the food industry, because some causes of obesity were far beyond the ministry's influence.
"We're not going to make a difference unless we work co-operatively and collaboratively."
In an interview, she said parents alone could not be expected to prevent their children from becoming overweight.
She highlighted many aspects of the "obesogenic environment", including increased television watching and computer use, which were associated with lower physical activity levels.
It was "really critical" that efforts be made to reduce the pressures arising from the marketing of unhealthy food and drinks to young people, she said.
Food portion sizes had increased, and foods and drinks with high fat, salt and/or sugar content were being marketed to young people in many ways, not only through television, she said.
Edgar National Centre for Diabetes Research director Prof Jim Mann agreed that "environmental change" was important to make it easier for people to undertake physical exercise and to have better access to healthy food.