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Essay On Obesity In New Zealand

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One major occurrence in communities of New Zealand is the rise of obesity. This vast increase is evident in Ministry of Health Adult obesity statistics. For example, ten years ago in New Zealand one in three adults - thirty-two percent were obese; clearly displaying the rapid increase in the adult obesity rate from twenty-seven percent in 2006/07 to thirty-two percent in 2015/16 (New Zealand Ministry of Health surveys, 2015/16). An interesting insight is why obesity has increased rapidly? A question that has been considered by a number of health professionals. In this essay, I will examine at-least two explanations that ‘the obesity epidemic’ has on society, furthermore providing research to support. …show more content…

Ministry of Health NZ, therefore, believe that a lifestyle change from a sedentary lifestyle to a more physically active lifestyle can decrease the percentage of obesity among Maori and Pacific population, the problem with this resolution however, is that it does not consider why local, regional and national actor groups i.e. media and food industries are easily accessible. It can be argued that improvement to lifestyle - increase in physical activity and further development within local, regional and national actor groups are the product of an important cultural reform within New Zealand society by providing regulations and laws for an appropriate environment. The second point to be addressed emphasizes the socio-economic forces. For example, individuals located in deprived areas were one point five times more likely to be obese compared to individual living in the least deprived areas (NZ M.O.H.S, 2016). (Lal, Moodie, Ashton, Siahpush & Swinburn, 2012) argues that the increase in obesity is the result of the economic change that has affected the Maori and Pacific local families and communities, an example of this is the demographic trends exposed by the media. Weil Jr, W. B. et al. also suggest that “lower socioeconomic level women are more frequently obese than are women of higher socioeconomic levels”

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