Cancer Council welcomes national healthy eating campaign

A national healthy eating campaign announced by the Federal Government today is a welcome development in the fight against the obesity epidemic, according to The Cancer Council Australia.

The Cancer Council’s Chief Executive Officer, Professor Alan Coates, said rapidly rising obesity rates, which tripled from 1985 to 1995, were “frightening” and if left unchecked, especially amongst children, would result in a “new generation of cancer sufferers” and other chronic diseases.Professor Coates said current consumption of fruit and vegetables in Australia was well below recommended levels. “This campaign is an important initiative to help Australians turn around poor eating habits, but to achieve lasting results we need long-term programs such as those that have proven effective in tobacco control.”Chair of The Cancer Council Australia’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee, Terry Slevin, said the Go for 2 Fruit & 5 Veg campaign had already been successfully implemented in Western Australia and he was delighted to see it being promoted on a national basis.”We estimate 25 per cent of bowel cancer could prevented by improved diet and increased physical activity,” Mr Slevin said. “Most recent figures show that over 12,000 Australians are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year.”Mr Slevin said The Cancer Council looked forward to seeing the Government’s promised physical activity campaign and stood ready to provide what practical assistance it could to support such initiatives. “We need more of these programs to turn around poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyles which have become endemic across the western world.”Given the investment in the current campaign, Mr Slevin said it was also timely for the Government to conduct a national nutrition and physical activity survey. “The last national nutrition survey was in 1995,” he said. “We are concerned that planning in the area of healthy nutrition and physical activity will be conducted in the absence of a sound ongoing measurement tool to assess progress in Australia on two of the most important lifestyle factors influencing our long term health.”(Source: Cancer Council: April 2005.)