February 2011     High school students graduating to be tomorrows cancer and cardiovascular patients.  Results of a national nutrition and physical activity survey of high school students, just released, will ring alarm bells among educators, health professionals and parents.

The research, by Cancer Council and the Heart Foundation, reveals excessive levels of overweight and obesity
among students (highest in low SES areas), inadequate rates of physical activity, insufficient fruit and vegetable intake and a high proportion of students making food choices based on advertising.

The participation of 12,000 students in years eight to 11 across 237 schools provides the first truly national survey sample of young Australians since 1985. 

Key findings:

• One in four students are overweight or obese, with a significantly higher rate in low SES areas.
• Eighty-five per cent of students don t engage in sufficient activity to provide a health benefit.
• Low fruit and vegetable intake, with 76% not meeting the daily recommended intake of four vegetable
  servings daily and 59% not meeting the daily recommended intake of three servings of fruit daily.
• One third drink four or more cups of soft drink, cordial or sports drink a week
• More than half (51%) tried a new food or drink product in the past month they had seen advertised.

Cancer Council Australia CEO, Professor Ian Olver, said the findings confirmed what health experts had been
saying for years, that poor nutrition and inadequate exercise were contributing to an unprecedented number of overweight and obese adolescents and a chronic disease time bomb .

If ever there was a wake-up call for Australians, this is it, Professor Olver said. As obese kids move into
adulthood the heightened risk of chronic diseases like cancer means previous gains in life expectancy may be
reversed. We may see todays teenagers die at a younger age than their parents generation for the first time in history.

The AMA has taken this opportunity to call on the Government to ban junk food advertising to young people. AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said that the survey confirms that advertising has a direct impact on the foods and drinks that older children and adolescents choose to consume.

The findings from this survey highlight the impact of advertising and marketing on adolescents and reinforces the AMA’s concerns – highlighted in its submission to the Preventative Health Taskforce – about the marketing of unhealthy products to children and young people.

Dr Pesce said that the AMA has for years been calling for a ban on broadcast advertising of energy-dense and nutrient-poor foods and beverages to children, particularly in children’s television viewing times.

The survey found that one-quarter of students had chosen to eat at a fast food outlet because it had a special offer or giveaway with a meal, and almost 20 per cent chose a food or drink because it was linked to a movie or sports personality.

“These results clearly show that the problem of targeted marketing of junk food to children and young people is not limited to broadcast advertising, with non-broadcast food marketing techniques such as freebies and gimmicks also having an impact on food choices,” Dr Pesce said.

From information provided by the Cancer Council, Heart Foundation and the AMA, February 9, 2011.

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