Unhealthy Food
Aotearoa can be a country where everyone has a diet that fuels their growth, learning, wellbeing and protects against disease.
Unfortunately, our eating environments are dominated by unhealthy food and drink as effective regulations to provide good information and promote health remain largely inadequate.
Unhealthy diet and excess body fat are major risk factors for non-communicable diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancers.
Our screens, outdoor spaces, sports and events are flooded with a stream of advertising for unhealthy food and drink.
Food insecurity is a growing problem. Nutritional deprivation in children affects growth and development, and results in learning difficulties, poor oral health and weakened immunity.
The health of low income, Māori and Pacific whānau is disproportionately harmed by food insecurity and unhealthy food environments.
HCA is advocating to achieve healthy food environments to improve health equity and protect our food supply from the impacts of climate change.
See our recent detailed recommendations to the Government here and here.
Key facts
- Aotearoa/New Zealand has the fourth highest rate of overweight and obesity for adults within OECD countries.
- 18% of preventable health loss is caused by overweight/obesity and unhealthy diets.
- There are about three times as many fast-food outlets and convenience stores per 10,000 people in the most deprived communities compared to the least deprived.
- NZ children are exposed to unhealthy food marketing over 68 times a day across multiple settings.
- One in five children (21.3%) lived in households where food ran out often or sometimes in the 12 months prior to the 2022/23 NZ Health Survey.
Where should we be heading?
Experts in nutrition and health have identified targets and minimum standards needed to improve health and our food environments.
New Zealand is not on track to achieve these.
Goal
- 25% or less of children are overweight or obese by 2025
- School children eat at least two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables each day
- Best practice measures to ensure healthy food environments and food security are being implemented.
Reality
- 33% of children are overweight or obese – NZ Health Survey 2022-2023
- Just 4.9 per cent of children ate the recommended serving of fruits and vegetables – NZ Health Survey 2022-2023
- Mostly not applied in New Zealand. New Zealand Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI) 2023
Making our food environment healthy
These actions are urgently needed to get New Zealand on track:
- Development of a national food and nutrition strategy
- A national nutrition survey – and commitment to ensure this happens regularly
- Make healthy food the norm for our kids – mandate healthy food only in schools and early childhood learning centres
- Commit to permanent funding of Ka Ora, Ka Ako – the free healthy school lunches programme and extend it to 50 per cent of all schools
- Legislate to limit marketing of unhealthy foods that children are exposed to.
- Legislate a tiered sugary drinks industry levy of 20 per cent.
- Make the Health Star Rating system mandatory
- Government-led healthier food reformulation, focusing on the serve size, energy, sodium and sugar contents of fast foods and supermarket products
HCA advocacy on unhealthy food environments is informed by a Food Policy Expert Advisory Panel whose members are leaders in food environments and nutrition.
For more information on healthy eating and nutrition research visit: Cancer Society NZ, Diabetes NZ, DIET, Edgar Diabetes & Obesity Research, Heart Foundation and Aotearoa’s Food Environment Dashboard
