Warning for Australia as child obesity rates reach grim milestone

Australia’s food and beverage laws are failing to protect children from a bombardment of unhealthy, inexpensive and aggressively marketed products, the United Nations’ agency for children has warned, as obesity overtakes thinness as the most globally prevalent form of malnutrition for the first time in recorded history.

UNICEF urged the federal government to overhaul food labelling requirements, clamp down on junk food advertising, and safeguard against political interference from the ultra-processed food industry. The agency estimated in a report released on Wednesday that one-third of Australians aged five to 19 have a body-mass index (BMI) within the obese or overweight range.

“Australia, along with governments across the world, must look to implement comprehensive mandatory policies to improve children’s food environments, including food labelling, food marketing restrictions, and food taxes and subsidies,” UNICEF Australia head of policy Katie Maskiell said.

For decades, efforts to combat child malnutrition have largely focused on children going hungry. But the report says obesity is the most prevalent form of malnutrition in all regions except sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, rising from 3 per cent in 2000 to 9.4 per cent in 2025.

The estimated proportion of children considered underweight has fallen from 13 to 9.2 per cent in the same 25-year period.

In Australia, the report estimated about 19 per cent of five to 19-year-olds have a BMI within the obese range, while 36.3 per cent are considered overweight – above the global average of 19.8 per cent.

Estimates used by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare have sat stable in the past 15 years at about 25 per cent for children aged two to seven.

Professor Louise Baur, a child and adolescent health expert at the University of Sydney and former president of the World Obesity Collective, said governments had failed to tackle the surge in obesity rates coinciding with the advent of ultra-processed foods and computer gaming in the mid ’80s.

She said tackling obesity and unhealthy eating was not about individual or parental choices, but governments protecting children from marketing, boosting access to green spaces, and making healthier food affordable.

“It’s a manifest failure to keep on saying, ‘eat less, exercise more’,” she said. “It’s a profoundly stupid way to think … because the forces promoting passive overconsumption of food and sedentary behaviours are immense.”

A parliamentary inquiry last year into Australia’s diabetes epidemic suggested taxing unhealthy drinks based on sugar content, and urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to consider placing restrictions on the advertising of unhealthy food to children under 16 on television, online and gaming platforms.

The government is yet to respond to the recommendations.

Australian Bureau of Statistics survey data released last week showed people are consuming lower volumes of sugary drinks but more snacks than a decade ago, while consumption of fruit has decreased by 17 per cent.

The UNICEF report found ultra-processed foods – products made in factories and containing little to no whole foods – account for at least half of the total energy intake in Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

“These levels are so high that they match the description of a staple food – meaning they constitute a dominant portion of adolescents’ diets,” it said.

Dr Paul Hotton, a Sydney-based community child health paediatrician, said conditions such as type 2 diabetes, sleep apnoea, and cardiovascular issues were appearing much earlier in patients as a result of unhealthy eating, increased screen time, and reduced exercise.

“We’re seeing greater prevalence of academic issues, cognitive issues, sleep issues, which then transition … into later adult life,” said Hotton, who is president-elect of the paediatric and child health division of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

“We see it as a health issue that’s going to have really significant financial impact for Australia in 15 or 20 years when those children become adults needing treatment to manage their chronic illnesses.”

UNICEF estimates that, by 2030, the obesity and overweight crisis will cost the Australian economy $66 billion a year. The global economic impact could exceed $US4 trillion ($6 trillion) if trends continue, the report warned.

Australia’s neighbours in the Pacific have some of the highest rates of obesity and overweight in the world: almost two-thirds (62 per cent) of five to 19-year-olds in the Cook Islands; 56 per cent in Tonga; and 49.6 per cent in Samoa.

Millions of children around the world remain underweight and at risk of starvation.

Sudan has been in the grips of famine for almost a year, leaving an estimated 24 million people facing severe hunger. Last month, the world’s leading authority on food crises declared famine was occurring in Gaza City under ongoing bombardment from Israel.

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