Advertisement

MP fights junk food problem

Kimberley MP Josie Farrer and her grandson Qantae Jzyk, 3, caught and ate the lizard thay are holding. Ms Farrer says indiginous people should embrace traditional hunting rather than turning to junk food.

Kimberley MP Josie Farrer is calling on the State Government to intervene urgently and make the prices of healthy food and drink sold in remote Aboriginal communities more affordable than sugar-based sodas and junk items like deep-fried potato chips and sweets.

Ms Farrer said she enjoyed teaching her grandchildren the importance of traditional hunting and food preparation, and encouraged other indigenous people to embrace their culture and return to "healthy" and "customary" diets.

Ms Farrer said action was needed to reduce consumption of introduced Western foods such as flour, sugar and salt after a three-year-old morbidly obese girl, said to be at "significant risk of death", was last week taken from her family in the East Kimberley and into State care.

She was reported as weighing at least 30kg - more than double the average weight for a child at that age as measured by the World Health Organisation.

Ms Farrer said the case reflected wider concern about health and nutrition in the North West.

"Kimberley families often struggle with prohibitively high costs of healthy food and children's health often suffers as a result," she said.

"It's ludicrous that in some remote communities, it's far cheap- er to purchase soft drink than water."

Broome doctor and weight-loss author Anita Campbell agreed with Ms Farrer.

Dr Campbell said many remote Kimberley communities had poor access to good nutritional information with little understanding of processed foods and their consequences.

She said it was important for people to get back to basics and eat high-nutrition fresh foods but recognised there were logistical hurdles.

"It would be hard to feed the family this way when, by the time it gets to a remote community, the price has more than doubled, the freshness has halved and the soft drink and lollies are the cheapest option," she said.

"Education, community engagement and affordable nutritious food options are the key to preventing obesity in any community, and without Government support, this can't happen in the Kimberley."

Ms Farrer said many people failed to make a connection between junk food and potential health issues such as obesity, and other weight-related illnesses including type 2 diabetes and osteoarthritis.

Health Minister Kim Hames said it was a challenge to convince Aboriginal people in remote communities to take the opportunities available to lead a healthier lifestyle.

"The price of a low-calorie soft drink can is the same as the high-calorie version, yet we continue to see the high-calorie version being the number one choice," he said.

In 2013, Health Department statistics showed chronic illness linked to obesity and being overweight was affecting 75 per cent of the Shire of Derby/West Kimberley in the North West.