Excess body weight contributes to medical conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, some cancers, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. It is estimated that Obesity and the associated illness cost the Australian society and federal government a total of $21 billion in 2005. It is estimated that over 2.5 million Australian adults are Obese and a further 4.9 million plus aussies are overweight. The proportion of Australian adults who are obese has more than doubled since 1990. Studies show that men were much more likely to be overweight than women (43% compared with 28%) and they were slightly more likely to be overweight.

Do you think there is an epidemic happening?

Children are now the ones suffering for the mistakes we as adults have made, I'm sure most families try and promote healthy eating to their young ones but it falls to pieces when it comes to exercise or the child simply being outside running around or riding their bike. Everyone's circumstances are different I know, but how long can parents go on kidding themselves, do they honestly think that just sending their child to school and participating in physical education once or twice a week provides their child with enough exercise. Then on the other hand there is some unfortunate children growing up in homes where fast food and junk food is their base diet along with little to no exercise, I guess it's a fair bet that these kids are already, at such a young age overweight and possibly obese, if they aren't now they soon will be. Studies show that about 50% of obese adolescents carry their obesity into adulthood and once a child is classed as overweight they are not likely to shed their extra weight as an adult.

If you're a parent please don't think I am just scathing a personal attack on you and no nothing about kids, I have two young children and understand that it can be hard to teach them to eat healthy foods once they have developed a taste for lollies and sweets. Junk food is unavoidable these days, it is perfectly placed in stores and advertised on television but the worst sort of advertisement out there is word of mouth and peer pressure from their friends. I should note the government is acting on this issue, but acting very slowly. Some recent action was to regulate television advertisements for fast food during afternoon and early evening times and stepping up their television campaign trying to make people aware of the brutal facts of obesity.

By now every adult in the world knows that obesity is a huge problem. So what's the solution?

As there is a number of contributing factors leading to obesity, we must first start and keep reinforcing the education on healthy living at home and set a good example for our children to follow so they are well equipped to tackle this issue when they are adults. If your child is overweight or obese perhaps we need to not only look at how, but also why they are overweight or obese. So for the sake of our next generation learn to be healthy yourself and set the example needed, and if you personally have weight management problems that you can't control, please seek help, join a gym, join a weight loss organization or find the right motivation to start yourself on the right track to living a healthier and longer life.

One last important tip to remember if you are about to make a dramatic change to your eating habits, is that if you are a large eater who needs to lose a lot of weight, my advice is that you cut back the size of your meals slowly and even introduce fruits and vegetables slowly if you do not normally eat them, even exercise should be started at a gentle pace so you don’t suffer from burnout and throw in the towel. One of the biggest reasons why so many people fail at dieting is because the sudden change of foods affect the body in sometimes unpleasant ways and it takes time to adjust, it is in this period where so many dieters fail. I suggest taking a good multivitamin and drinking plenty of water is one piece of advice you implement straight away.

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