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New Zealand's response to obesity involves too much talk and not enough action, according to a visiting British health campaigner.
Professor Philip James, who chairs an international obesity taskforce, says New Zealand should ban all food advertising on children's television and cut the goods and services tax on fresh fruit and vegetables.
He says children's diets here are "atrocious" because food companies recognise that by marketing to children they can manipulate the eating patterns of entire families.
He says voluntary codes governing food advertising during children's viewing hours don't work and New Zealand should pass laws to ban it and all other forms of food advertising that target children.
James says New Zealand should reduce GST on non-processed foods, and all schools, government and central government agencies should ban sugary foods from their canteens.
He also says doctors should take a greater role in fighting obesity.
