The New Zealand Parliament's health committee announced yesterday that it will hold an inquiry into obesity, saying the country was in the grip of an epidemic which threatens to collapse the public health system.

"Obesity is arguably the most serious public health crisis confronting New Zealand," said Sue Kedgley, a Green Party politician who chairs the committee, citing surveys indicating that 1.5 million of New Zealand's 4.2 million people are overweight.

"Everyone recognises that if we don't cure the obesity epidemic, it will overwhelm our health system," she said.

Official figures say that one-third of New Zealand children aged 5 to 14 are either overweight or obese and 1-in-5 adults are medically defined as obese.

Kedgley said obesity was linked to a range of conditions, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, strokes and some cancers.

"Unless we address the problems of obesity and diabetes they are going to put huge strains on our health budget and the number of New Zealanders requiring hospitalisation will increase."

Kedgley said New Zealand children were growing up in an environment that encouraged them to eat high-sugar, high-fat foods and drinks known to contribute to obesity and poor health.

"If we are serious about reducing the risks of obesity we have to find ways of reducing the overwhelming pressure on children to eat unhealthy food," she said.

The committee is inviting members of the public, health experts and food industry representatives to make submissions which are expected to include calls for a special tax on fatty foods and restrictions on advertising.

Medicare to cover obesity surgery

Obese elderly or disabled patients are now eligible for a variety of surgical weight-loss procedures under the US Medicare health insurance plan, US Government officials said on Tuesday (local time).

Patients must have tried but failed with other weight loss options, have at least one weight-related medical problem and have a high body mass index, the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services said.

Previously, Medicare patients could only receive gastric bypass surgery, in which the lower part of the stomach is either closed off or removed and its contents detoured around the large intestine directly to the small intestine.

Source: China Daily