Magda’s Big National Health Check

By her own admission Magda Szubanski is one of the most unlikeliest of presenters for a show around our health.

She’s had her own very public battles with diet culture and weight and is dealing with her own underlying health conditions.

But this also gives her skin in the game, something at stake personally, which is not as readily evident in shows by the excellent Dr. Michael Mosely and co.

Her presenting style is also very frank, sprinkled with her trademark humour, all of which makes her a pretty effective tool at delivering a message: we need to do much, much better at monitoring our own health.

The stats are scary. One in two Australians suffer from at least one long-term (or chronic) illness. 94 in 100 children aren’t eating enough fruit & veg. All this despite a world class health system in a lucky country. I’m feeling guilty already.

In the first of three Magda’s Big National Health Check episodes, Magda meets CEO of VicHealth Sandro Demaio, who lays the blame squarely at a lack of physical activity combined with too much junk food surrounding us. Make no mistake, fast food franchises (golden arches in particular) do not get a good run in this episode.

Indeed, even where you live can impact your chances at addressing health. Visiting the Australian Urban Observatory (which sounds like something James Stewart would foster in Rear Window), Magda learns that suburb access and facilities all contribute to maintenance: green spaces, hospitals, distance to supermarkets, cycling lanes etc. Newsflash… bad news for outer ‘burbs.

Rural access to medical care is particularly poor, but a visit to Mansfield, north east of Melbourne shows how one community is fighting back. Not just refusing a local fast food chain entry, the town has made steps to reverse its poor record of child nutrition. Community solutions include a local fresh fruit drive, free exercise clases, a weekly fun run, and free heart checks for the whole of the town.

This leads to a confronting diagnosis for Szubanski herself, who admits, “It’s better to hear, than not know.” With knowledge comes informed decisions and a chance to reverse….

Episode one also targets junk food messaging to kids, Indigenous health, and an emrgency for our presenter aka ‘National treasure.’ Our trusty host, carrying a backpack which I kept wondering what it was holding, cuts through the science and keeps the messaging personal.

Szubanksi has several decades of being a favourite Australian performer, and in recent years has become more active politically, notably during the Same Sex Marriage Debate. For such activism she has also become heavily targeted on social media, which doubtless plays a part in her own mental health. She attributes some of her fighting spirit to her late mother.

But unlike some media personalities she isn’t afraid to acknowledge her own foibles, using her celebrity super-powers for good over evil. Not everybody would be so candid in letting cameras follow them into medical clinics, hospitals and their own home. But Szubanski knows there is a greater good at stake here.

I imagine if the doco series helps save one life, or adds more years on the planet for another, it will have been worth it.

Magda’s Big National Health Check airs 8:30pm Tuesday on ABC.