Statistics (see below) from the http://www.health.govt.nz/ website shows a steady increase of child and adult bodyweights. I wondered why this is and I asked around and found out from a local butcher that the amount of whole meats such as roasts beef, neck chops for boil ups and other meat cuts straight from a beast ie lamb, sheep, pig has been on a decline in the last 10 years.

Home cooking is not only a rarity but the youth of today are not being taught how to make the traditional Maori cooking styles such as the boil up and are being more akin to getting food from sugar laded fast food outlets. Prices of fast foods have also skyrocketed in the last decade.

This is not to bash fast food outlets in anyway but to include this type of food as a regular on your weekly diet planner may be contributing to the obesity issue. One of the hidden ingredients used in fast food that hooks youth is sugar. Sugar in sauces, buns, desserts and soft drinks may contribute to the addictive nature behind these foods. Check out a documenty on sugar http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/secrets-sugar/.

If you have spoken to any personal trainer, when it comes to losing weight by burning bodyfat, the first tip is to drop sugar in your diet. Also lowering carbohydrates intake which when you look at fast food consists of most of a meal.

Anyway, I believe we are not teaching our kids how to cook and prepare meals for themselves like we had to in the early days before fast food restaurants flooded the Franklin District and because of that, it may contributes to childhood to adulthood obesity.

Maybe if kids were interested in how to put on a roast beef, slow cook a casserole or even how to cook a steak properly, we could teach them good habit that will affect their eating habits for good and avoid the disastrous path they are travelling on at the moment.

Obesity is defined as a person’s body weight being 20% or higher than it should be based on your body mass index (BMI).

To calculate your own body weight click here

  • one in nine children (aged 2–14 years) were obese (11%)
  • almost one in three adults (aged 15 years and over) were obese (31%)
  • a further 22% were children were overweight but not obese
  • a further 35% of adults were overweight but not obese
  • the child obesity rate increased from 8% in 2006/07 to 11% in 2014/15.
  • the adult obesity rate increased from 27% in 2006/07 to 31% in 2014/15

Photo are from the RSA Franklin roast dinner.