In Najia Syed's family, a love of cricket is a given - which is good news for her two children after a new report found organised sport is a major factor in warding off childhood obesity.
The Australian National University study, released on Thursday, found Australian children of parents born abroad in poorer countries are more likely to be , with researchers pointing to a gap in organised sport participation as the main cause for the different results among migrant and non-migrant children.
Mrs Syed first moved to Sydney from Pakistan in 2007 and told SBS News it was difficult to get her children into sport because she didn't have a licence, and struggled to pay sporting fees on her family's single income.
Getting kids into sport at a young age can be crucial to beating obesity. Source: AAP
But cricket "was always present" and she encouraged her son to play with her in the backyard. Now, the family lives in Canberra and her children, aged 12 and nine, are involved in the local cricket club and swimming on weekends.
"It was hard initially, but now they have gained a love of the game," she said.
"Unfortunately, school does not provide many extracurricular or sporting activities, you have to take them and enroll them in different clubs. But it's easy to sit down and give them a gadget."
The latest study found organised sport was crucial to beat childhood obesity. Source: AAP
The ANU study, which examined the data of roughly 5,000 children aged between four and 11-years-old over a decade, found children of immigrants had higher rates of obesity at every age.
The study also found the gap between immigrant and Australian-born male children widened as they aged.
Australian children of parents born abroad in poorer countries are more likely to be overweight or obese, compared to wealthier counterparts. Source: AAP
“The Australian statistics said, but when we look at Australian-immigrant children, it varies by sex, but is higher at all ages,” research author Tehzeeb Zulfiqar told SBS News.
First-generation immigrants from low and middle-income countries tend to have lower rates of obesity and better health than immigrants from wealthy countries when they arrive in Australia, but according to the study this advantage reverses within one generation.
Children of immigrants were also shown to eat more fruit and vegetables than Australian children.
The consumption of sugary beverages and fatty food was significant across all groups – but highest among children of immigrants.
The consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and fatty food was significant across all groups, but also the highest among children of immigrants. Source: AAP
Mrs Syed said she struggled with getting used to the different eating habits and available fresh produce in Australia when she first arrived.
"It’s a huge transition because you do not know the right way of eating or how much.
"In Pakistan, I was not cooking for myself, and here you are in charge of the entire family and you have to sort out the groceries and work out a sensible meal plan."
But for Ms Zulfiqar, the results still come back to physical activity.
“The distinctive feature between these two groups was that the immigrant children from low or middle income countries were not as physically active,” she said.
“Their organised sport participation was low, and they had a higher preference for sedentary activities, so they were more likely to sit and watch television or play computer games.”
Getting kids involved in sport or physical activity is key, regardless of where they come from. Source: AP
She suggested the low rates of participation in organised sport likely came down to a number of factors, including cost, as Mrs Syed found, increased concern for child safety and fears of racism and bullying.
Another concern Ms Zulfiqar pointed to was the lack of accessible and culturally specific public health information for families from countries where excess weight is viewed as a positive thing.
“They come from places where children are malnourished and have these cultural practices where they want to feed the kids more because they think they will grow taller or perhaps they will be healthier,” Ms Zulfiqar said.
“There seems to be a gap between what is fairly known in the Australian community and what the immigrant population know.”
Executive manager of the Obesity Policy Coalition Jane Martin said the accessibility and cheap prices of unhealthy food in Australia might come as a shock for newly arrived families who don't have the same access in their home countries.
"A lot of these families would be very price sensitive, and we know that often junk food is heavily discounted or very cheap," she said.
"There are a lot of things that need to be done, and probably some specific education with these families around what is healthy food because the food supply is probably very different.
"What we are seeing is migrant families are coming to Australia and adopting similar habits to Australians, so there are environmental forces at work in our society that are shaping children's diets and levels of physical activity so it is important to address those."
