How can food companies prevent obesity?

Unhealthy diet contributes hugely to the burden of preventable disease in Australia, like heart disease – our number one killer – Type 2 diabetes and several cancers. Two thirds of Australians are considered overweight or obese, which puts them at higher risk of these diseases. If we can take steps to improve our diets and reduce obesity, we can improve our health.

But if we’re going to address the problem of obesity, Gary says, “we need a whole of society approach. We’re going to need governments to take some action, we’re going to need food companies to take some action, as well the community taking action.”

Join Amber and Gary as they discuss Gary’s research into how seriously our biggest food companies take the obesity epidemic and shine the spotlight on the role they could play in preventing obesity.

Associate Professor Gary Sacks is a Victorian Young Tall Poppy 2020 and a Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow with the Institute’s Global Obesity Centre. His research focuses on policies for the prevention of obesity and related diseases. Gary co-founded INFORMAS (International Network for Food and Obesity / non-communicable diseases Research, Monitoring and Action Support) – a global network for monitoring food environments and leads the component of INFORMAS dedicated to monitoring the actions of food companies in relation to obesity prevention and population nutrition. He also leads the Australian Food Environments Dashboard, launched in June 2021, which brings together for the first time the most up-to-date data from research institutions and government departments to describe the healthiness of Australia’s food environments.