Flab fight: obese Tasmanians urged to go vegan

Updated

Tasmania's fattest region is being urged to go vegan to help battle the bulge.

Animal welfare group PETA has written to the Dorset mayor in the state's north-east, spruiking the benefits of a meat and dairy-free diet.

PETA has sent the mayor a vegan starter kit, including recipes and tips for making the switch.

A University of Adelaide study found the region has the state's highest proportion of overweight people, with about 24 in 100 considered obese.

PETA's Claire Fryer says a vegan diet could help those people shed weight.

"We're basically looking to encourage officials to reach out to the public and suggest that this is a valid option for reducing obesity and also for improving health overall in the town," she said.

"Non-meat eaters have been found, on average, to weigh several kilos less than those who follow a meat-eating diet.

"So it certainly could help in several areas, not only obviously with obesity, but areas associated with that such as heart disease, diabetes."

Mayor Barry Jarvis says there is nothing wrong with being a vegan but he doubts locals will stomach the idea.

Alderman Jarvis says most residents in rural Dorset have grown up eating meat and ditching the local diet now is unrealistic.

"Our residents would have mainly been brought up on meat and veg," he said.

"We certainly produce some wonderful poultry and beef and so forth in the north-east, as well as some good vegetables, so I don't think the north-east would be predominantly interested in moving to a vegan diet."

Bridport chef Amy Barnes says she is not used to catering for vegans.

"I don't reckon it would be embraced here," she said.

"We've got Scottsdale which is farming so cows...all the local seafood and stuff, so I don't think it would be embraced here."

Australian Medical Association spokesman Dr Gerry McGushin says the key is moderation.

"Obesity is mainly a lifestyle issue and so we should be...changing our lifestyle and if it means adopting a vegetarian diet, well, okay, that might be the way to go."

"But I think in the long run we wouldn't be proposing that people should all become vegetarians.

"I think with people, if they're going to be meat eaters, they should eat it in moderation and certainly dairy products in moderation as well."

PETA has offered the vegetarian/vegan starter kit to several of the fattest cities in Australia including Bundaberg, Mount Gambier and Broken Hill.

"We've also written to American Samoa which obviously has a very high obesity rate and we're hoping that many of Dorset's residents will take this opportunities as well as obviously the other regions that are so desperately in need of it," Ms Fryer said.

Topics: obesity, activism-and-lobbying, scottsdale-7260

First posted