This is not good: one in five Australian children are overweight -- before they start kindergarten.

But food giants Kellogg’s and Nestle are resisting calls to ban cartoon characters on junk food packaging, despite Australia ranking among the worst countries for childhood obesity.

The epidemic costs our country millions of dollars every year. We need to put the health of our nation before corporate profits and greed. 

Health Minister Greg Hunt -- ban cartoon characters on junk food and tackle childhood obesity!

The government’s attitude has always leant towards industry self-regulation. But campaigners are claiming that this approach isn’t working.

Vicki Brown, who lead this research, said the study shows that it was not only in adulthood that obesity was putting strain on healthcare budgets.

“Up until now the argument for intervening in this age group has been to reduce future healthcare costs. The new information is that we can do that, but we can also reduce these burdens to taxpayers and the government,” she said.

Almost 250,000 SumOfUs members like you petitioned the EU commissioner for Health and Food Safety when corporations were unwilling to limit levels of toxic chemical acrylamide in their food. When we come together, we can force governments and corporations to do the right thing.

Our movement is for putting people before profit -- let’s make sure Health Minister Greg Hunt knows that.

Greg Hunt -- the food industry has failed to self regulate. We want a ban on cartoon characters on junk food to get this problem under control!

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