With overweight and obesity levels in Australia roughly equivalent to those in the UK, recent research from the UK Weight Watchers shows that average Brit is chomping their way through 1,270kg of food a year – the equivalent weight of 14 baby elephants – according to research commissioned by Weight Watchers.
That’s 384kg more food per adult than is needed.
The biggest offenders are identified as ‘fatty spreads’ with more than seven times the recommended amount of butter and margarine-style spreads being consumed on a weekly basis. Other food that is over-consumed includes meat, bread, biscuits and cakes – but not enough fruit and vegetables are being eaten.
Head of Public Health at Weight Watchers UK, Zoe Hellman, says over-eating is influenced by today’s overloaded food environment.
“With the increased popularity of coffee shop culture and eating on the go it seems that, everywhere you turn, there is yet another place you can buy food, cooked and ready to eat.”
She says this helps create a process of “mindless eating” where food gets eaten as part of a social occasion but where it isn’t necessary.
“People make up to 220 food and drink decisions every day, yet we’re usually only aware of making about 15,” Ms Hellman said.
She said the other issue is the increase in average plate sizes. “There is a trend for oversize plates and that encourages people to eat more as we tend to want to fill it.”
The average plate size has increased by 20% since 1990.
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