Fiji is sitting right behind Nauru, Tonga and Samoa on the obesity list and if we are not careful we could become the heaviest people in the South Pacific.

Interim Health Minister Neil Sharma speaking at the Launch of World Consumers Day said with the amount of junk food such as certain breakfast cereals and fizzy drinks young children are exposed to everyday, our children are starved of the basic nutritional needs.

In a Ministry of Health research done in 2006, it was revealed that 18.6% of Indo-Fijian youths between 0-9 years were underweight and malnourished.

The report also revealed that 82% of all deaths in the country were due to cardiovascular diseases.

Sharma added that if parents and teachers are not careful with what children eat, then these figures could triple by 2015.