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16 February, 2012 1:47PM AEDT = Tasmanians' health lagging behind = By Jo Spargo - Statewide Afternoons What are you having for dinner tonight, do you have a weekly menu plan and stick to it or do you call into a fast food outlet on your way home because it is quicker, easier, cheaper and there's no washing up to do?

Tasmania falls behind the rest of Australia with almost every key health indicator. Being time poor is one of our main excuses as well as a bigger reliance on the car over the last 30 or 40 years. There has also been huge increase in fast food outlets in Tasmania with millions of dollars being spent on advertising online, on TV and through in store promotion encouraging you and particularly the younger children in your family to eat junk food. The Heart Foundation Tasmania chief executive, Graeme Lynch, has told [|Your Afternoons' Penny Terry] this means we are encouraging our children to eat unhealthy food. "In Tasmania we have the difficulty that we are one of the poorest states in terms of the resources and assets we have and unfortunately there is a link between social economic status and poor health and the gradient is quite strong," he says. "Employment is the biggest one, if you are employed you are far more likely to take care of your health." Mr Lynch also says poor health has little to do with the state's Health Department and more about infrastructure.

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