Fat Science author Robin Toomath shares her opinion

How can the aged care and retirement sector help regain control over our food systems that are making us fat?

Robyn Toomath: The statistics show that being overweight isn’t harmful for those over 75. Obesity-related problems like diabetes, heart and liver disease mean that many won’t make that age. An older person needs to work hard to maintain muscle mass, and weight loss results in the loss of fat AND muscle so as long as a person is mobile I don’t think they should worry about being fat. That’s not the same as saying we should eat junk. Good nutrition is important for tissue repair so high quality protein and fresh vegetables are as important as ever. The issue of course is cost and my guess is that many pensioners struggle to afford the food they need and like busy working parents of young families will be seduced by the convenience and cheapness of processed food.

The positive side of the story is that many retired people are fit and well and have skills that younger generations are losing. My 83-year-old mother is still an excellent cook and my 92-year-old father maintains a large garden. Home cooked food and family meals in particular are crucial for the maintenance of food traditions. Older people play an important role in valuing the social as well as the nutritional aspects of eating.

How can health professionals and older people use a frame of reference of improving nutrition to improve New Zealand's obesogenic environment?

Robyn Toomath: The frame of reference I would like to see is one where we decide we want the population to eat healthily, and not excessively. This is going to be achieved most easily at the level of government, using tools such as taxation to shift the balance in favour of healthy food. In our local environments though we can look at the food provided at shared meals, at fund-raising events and our work places and ensure that this is healthy. We also have the ability to control food sold in schools, sports and social clubs. If nothing else we can stop selling soft drinks. Most importantly we need to acknowledge that those with a genetic tendency to gain weight need to be supported not blamed. Most of the adult population is now overweight. This recent change isn’t because we suddenly become lazy or greedy. It’s because we are inundated with cheap, tasty, high-calorie food.

There is a growing awareness that the free market is failing us. Instead of responding to our demands and providing us with what we want, the market has turned food into a global commodity. Marketing is now manipulating us to want what is being provided. We have been persuaded that we want out-of-season produce flown from across the other side of the world, that everything should come in a plastic box, with plastic cutlery and that the larger the serving, the better value it is. Not only is this unhealthy but it is hugely wasteful of the planet’s resources. In 1917 the US Food Administration produced posters headed up ‘Food’. 1) Buy it with thought; 2) Cook it with care; 3) Use less wheat and meat; 4) Buy local foods; 5) Serve just enough; 6) Use what is left. Don’t waste it.

One hundred years on this is excellent advice.

About Robyn Toomath and 'Fat Science':

Robyn Toomath is the Clinical Director of General Medicine at Auckland Hospital, former President of the New Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes, and founder of Fight the Obesity Epidemic. Drawing on the latest research and twenty years of working with overweight patients, she has written a short and punchy book, 'Fat Science', to dispel myths and tell some tough truths about our obesity epidemic.

ENDS

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