Four Corners: Oct 13

This could be a fascinating episode of Four Corners tomorrow, when ABC visits Ararat, the town featured in The Biggest Loser, to see how the community is faring.

By the sound of things, it looks like a good report card.

We know the problem. More Australians are fat and they’re getting fatter. What no one can agree on is how to stop an epidemic that’s threatening to make the next generation less healthy than the one before.

Everyone agrees that one part of the answer is to exercise more. What’s less clear is how people can be encouraged to eat a healthier diet. On one side, public health advocates say food companies must reduce the levels of fat, salt and sugar they put in their products. On the other side, many believe diet is a personal responsibility way beyond Government regulation.

“No one is in charge of what goes into my mouth except me.” – Tony Abbott as Health Minister, 2005

This week, reporter Geoff Thompson goes to the Victorian town of Ararat to see if an ongoing community intervention to promote weight loss and better health can work.

Ararat was the town targeted by the television program ‘The Biggest Loser’ because of the number of overweight people there. The show highlighted the battle of one small group of residents to shed excess kilos by doing vigorous exercise, while being offered the chance to change their diet.

With support of the Ararat Council, winnings from the show were used to fund an ‘Active 8’ program to extend a fitness and health regime to others in the community. The whole community took up the challenge, with hundreds of residents now wearing pedometers to record their movement each day.

Four Corners visited Ararat to test the impact of the intervention on the rest of the community. The results are surprising, with ground-breaking implications for Government and health officials.

We see that exercise can be effective in reducing weight, but ultimately its impact is limited without significant emphasis also being given to diet. In modern Australia, that pits each person against human nature and a multi-billion dollar industry with a massive advertising budget.

This raises a simple question. What role should Government play in determining the kind of food we are encouraged to eat, how it is labelled and marketed? Any significant change in this area would involve major Government intervention.

The processed food industry says that type of change is unnecessary. It claims it’s aware of health issues, and that it already submits itself to a strict regulatory regime.

“If you reward success with a big stick, with a regulation, what message does that send?” – Gary Dawson, Australian Food and Grocery Council

Monday 13th October at 8.30pm on ABC.