If you have the time, you should check out this documentary about childhood obesity

Totally agree this is a big issue about which we largely have heads in sand. It needs fronting by the health professsionals.

@reidalexanderwicks
I understood that.
Our system of food production for urbanized consumer societies is flawed.
I like the ideas of having a white line on all sugar laden drinks and products packaging. The line would represent the amount of sugar by volume that the product contains.
If the amount is excessive the line to the bottom should carry obesity warnings similar to cigarette packaging has.

Alternatively we could have a rationing system per household of how many calories they can purchase from supermarkets etc.
I guess this is a bit totalitarian for a party that is into freedom though.

@reidalexanderwicks

@colindavies Yeah. Definitely a bit creepy. I'm more into education than restriction.

Você mora perto de Wellington? Eu quero ter a oportunidade de falar com um falante de português. Eu posso entender o que tá escrita, mas é difícil entender o que pessoas falam quanto falam português.

Nao, eu mora no Tauranga, relamente nao conhecer ninguin la no wellington, for a de meu filho quem esta no Victoria. E ele fala ruim de mais. Aqui tem muito backpacker Braziliero que trabalaha no industria de Kiwifruit. Vi, como eu escreve ruim tamben. Na conversa eu fala de forma de natural, e posso faz various sutaques to Brasil.

@colindavies Ah, sotaques... Eu gosto de sotaques diferentes.

Yes, it's all about sugar overload in our diet (google toxic sugar). Have a look around you when next at the counter at a petrol station/supermarket etc. I've even found it in frozen oven bake chips. It's already in a lot of foods naturally but food manufacturers put it in everything they can to help sell a product. It goes under a long list of names like glucose, sucrose, fructose, corn syrup (&many more) in the ingredient list with all the other strange ingredients that have numbers beside them that they now call food. Food corporations have enormous power over govt (notice how the govt try to mitigate the problem of bad teeth from sugar by putting fluoride in the water). I think a good idea for tackling the problem is to follow similar strategies to those used on cigarette co's, maybe first ban advertising of coke etc. plus I think community food growing is very important for the future for so many reasons.

A lot of 'food like substances' are very addictive. Like the difference between coca leaves and cocaine. Same difference between evaporated raw sugar cane juice and white sugar. All refined foods give the body a 'feel good' hit which is very addictive. Most supermarket food has got white sugar, white wheat flower, fat-salt combination + all the artificial colourings, preservatives etc. No wonder that the human body is having problems with its balance. Diet softdrinks have been proven to lower the metabolism, making the problem even bigger. How do we change our habits, so we will start eating truly healthy food?

@danvanwylich

How do we change our habits, so we will start eating truly healthy food?

Simple make them taste better.
Since that's not possible, we need to use some form of positive reinforcement, along with simple advice as to what foods contain what.
I am against GST removal from fresh foods, as its not something that can be controlled well. However it would be better to have a rebate system on said products. So we are almost paying people to eat healthy foods.

@colindavies Only slightly related to your comment, I find it weird that people prefer the taste of white bread, and that it's what sells best. It tastes too artificial in my opinion, and has a way worse texture.