The director of public health in the Cook Islands says she's not sure how the World Health Organisation came to conclude that her country is the fattest in the world.
Transcript
The director of public health in the Cook Islands says she's not sure how the World Health Organisation came to conclude that her country is the fattest in the world.
According to the WHO, 50.8 percent of Cook Islanders are obese -- the highest rate in the world.
But the director of the public health department, Neti Herman, says she's not how this rate was determined, but does admit the country has a problem with obesity.
She told Jamie Tahana her department is working hard to combat the problem.
NETI HERMAN: We have community sessions, we have the media and work place house assessments for most of the islands, and we have healthy life programmes that we do. Similarly with our school health food policies. We visit tuck shops in the schools and we have special training for food vendors relating to food safety and nutrition to encourage healthy recipes and food being available, as well as promoting the sale of water. We have training of community fitness instructors. We take a multi sectoral approach in working with both government and non government organisations
JAMIE TAHANA: Are you starting to see signs of this approach working?
NH: Well we think so but as I said we are not sure how the WHO came up with those findings but we have noticed some improvement in some areas, but we have been putting a lot of emphasis, especially in our school children and our young people. We are trying to put a lot of emphasis on these areas.
JT: What do you mean when you say that the WHO came up with their percentage?
NH: Well I am not sure yet because how did they come to this percentage, and we haven't had a meeting yet to look at - we haven't contacted the WHO. But we are concerned about this article in the paper and we are doing everything we can in the Cook Islands to address this question about obesity.
JT: When you say you are concerned about the articles and the percentage and stuff, does that mean you don't think it is particularly accurate.
NH: I am not saying that. At the moment I don't really know how they came up with that article but this is something that we have to sit down and look at, perhaps talk with the WHO. We haven't had that opportunity at the moment. So we are definitely going to look at that and work with the WHO, but I am not saying that we don't agree with the WHO but we would like to know more about this figure - how it came about.
JT: So the figure might be uncertain but the fact that there is a problem with obesity is not disputed?
NH: We acknowledge that there is a problem with obesity at the moment in the Cook Islands and we have been working very hard to try and reduce obesity. As for us we can see some improvements in some areas, in the schools and in the communities, but we haven't really done any research to find out what is the rate or the degrees of the reduction or the increase.
JT: What are the main causes?
NH: I think generally there has been a change in our lifestyles. People are eating more processed food and less of our local foods like the root vegetables and greens, but we have noticed that the people are starting to eat more vegetables and fruit. There is definitely a changing attitude but maybe we haven't seen the impact of that changing attitude yet.
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