Friday 14 September 2018 12:08pm
Professor Jim Mann, Co-Director of the Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research Centre (EDOR), has commented on a recent study that showed an increase in serving sizes in New Zealand fast food outlets.
The "Fast Food Trends in New Zealand" study, based at the University of Auckland, looked at nearly 1500 products over 10 fast food chains. It found that between 2012 and 2016, serving sizes across all products grew by 5 percent, along with a 12 percent increase in sodium per serve.
As well as the portion size and salt-content increasing, the energy in each serving also rose by 14 percent during the 5 years of the study.
Professor Mann commented in a Radio New Zealand interview that the larger portion sizes were reflected in New Zealand's presence near the top of the world statistics for obesity.
"What people don't realise is that about 10 years ago we were roughly on a par with countries like the UK, Finland and Canada, but since then we have rapidly increased."
Read the research study article:
Five year trends in the serve size, energy, and sodium contents of New Zealand fast foods: 2012 to 2016, Nutrition Journal, 2018, 17:65
Read more about this study
- Study on growing serving sizes highlights obesity problem, Radio NZ, 4 September, 2018
- Supersize that? New Zealand's worrying fast food trends, University of Auckland, 9 September, 2018
