Ottawans are on board with the Ontario Medical Association push for “aggressive new measures” to fight obesity among children.
Ontario doctors are calling for higher taxes and graphic warning labels on junk food to combat what they are calling an “epidemic in the province” when it comes to overweight and obese children.
“Anything that reduces the consumption of junk food is a good idea and I think some people will spend less but it’s already overpriced and people are still buying it so unless they taxed it at 50%, it’s not going to have a huge impact,” said Ottawa resident Kathy Valee.
“It’s a good start, at least they’re doing something about it and hopefully it will work,” Thuy Nguyen added.
According to the OMA, almost 32% of kids in Canada are overweight or obese — up from 26% in the 1980s.
Marlena Cherette of Ottawa was hopeful and relieved the OMA was adopting these measures.
“We’re facing an obesity crisis, kids 10 years old are having cholesterol and high blood pressure,” said Cherette. “I’ve struggled with weight all my life so I know how difficult it is.”
The association plans to present the province with several recommendations, including the placement of warning labels on foods deemed fattening and lacking nutritional value, a heightened tax on such food, a tax decrease on foods deemed healthy, restrictions in the marketing of junk food to kids, and limiting access to such food in recreational facilities.
OMA president Dr. Doug Weir said he hopes this will lower obesity rates the way taxation and warnings on cigarette packages have helped lead to a more than 30% decrease in smoking since the 1960s.
The feds forced cigarette makers about 13 years ago to place pictures of diseased gums and gaunt-looking cancer patients on tobacco packages.
Weir, a child psychiatrist, said he’s well aware there will be groups in the food industry that will be upset by these proposed measures.
“We are raising a generation of children that will suffer from devastating and “preventable diseases, overwhelm the (health-care) system and die prematurely,” he said, adding that obesity costs the province as much as $2.5 billion annually.
The OMA is compiling a list of what it considers junk food and “healthy” food, and will present it to the provincial government as part of its proposition, a spokesman said.
— With files from Terry Davidson