Media Release
Fight the Obesity Epidemic (FOE)
24 February 2012
Foods we needn’t eat
“The NEEDNT food list compiled by University of Otago researchers has great potential,” says Dr Robyn Toomath,
spokesperson for Fight the Obesity Epidemic (FOE).
"The list shows that a large proportion of the products sold in supermarkets and convenience stores, and virtually
everything at fast food outlets, is actually NEEDNT food - non-essential, energy dense, nutritionally deficient junk
food. It is precisely these foods that are so much at the heart of the obesity epidemic in New Zealand, which is
threatening to cripple the health system."
"Using a nutrition assessment tool to identify foods such as the ones on this list is a logical way of identifying
produce which should be banned for advertising to children, and subject to extra tax," Dr Toomath says. “These aren’t
just foods we needn’t eat, they’re foods we shouldn’t eat more than occasionally. The Government must do much more to
help people avoid NEEDNT foods.”
The NEEDNT food list has just been published in the New Zealand Medical Journal.
ends