Measures taken in New South Wales to address childhood obesity following the NSW Childhood Obesity Summit

Liz Develin

Abstract

‘A nation of porkers’; ‘All guns firing in the battle of the bulge’; and ‘Junk food wars’: these are just some of the headlines used by the print media to describe the national epidemic of overweight and obesity. And while slowing or reversing the increasing prevalence of obesity is the difficult task that faces NSW—and indeed the whole developed world—the NSW Government has taken steps to address this population health crisis. This article describes the health risks of and trends in overweight and obesity in NSW, and the key initiatives that emerged from the NSW Childhood Obesity Summit, in particular the NSW Healthy School Canteen Strategy and the Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey.

New South Wales Public Health Bulletin 15(4) 68 - 71 (2004) doi:10.1071/NB04015