School education to help obesity fight A FOOD education program by celebrity chef Stephanie Alexander should be expanded to every primary school in Australia in the fight against obesity, experts say. The recommendation is one of five lobby group Obesity Australia is pressuring the federal government to act on, saying the costs of failing to tackle the epidemic are too great. The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation is planned to operate in a tenth of primary schools by 2015. But in its report released Thursday, Obesity Australia says expanding it across all Australian primary schools will revolutionise the next generation's food attitudes. The report says the extra cost of a single lifetime of obesity is almost $1 million. With more than a quarter of adult Australians obese, this would translate into a figure that is three times Australia's annual health budget, the group says. Obesity Australia executive chair Professor John Funder says most of the measures are preventative, inexpensive and can be quickly put in place. He says the costs of intervening are less than not taking any action. The group is calling for government support, including subsidies for weight-loss programs and boosting the rebate for obesity surgery such as lap band surgery, to address the epidemic and relieve the health cost burden. Obesity Australia says if an extra 60,000 means-tested severely obese patients are supported with accredited weight-loss programs, the annual cost would be a "worthwhile" $30 million. The recommendations, provided to 30 federal MPs this week, also calls for guidelines for parents with children under three, introducing a health and physical program in schools and restricting television advertising for junk food and sugary drinks.