More than 65 per cent of residents in the Murrumbidgee local health district aged over 16 are either overweight or obese.

You read that right.

Take a walk down Baylis Street and you’ll see it for yourself.

Wobbling waistlines, wall-to-wall fast food outlets, drivers circling for an eternity so they can park directly out the front of their chosen shop.

We’ve heard it so often, we’ve stopped paying attention: obesity is a modern-day medical emergency.

People who are obese, compared to those with a healthy weight, are at increased risk of a host of serious diseases and health conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer and mental illness.

And regional centres like ours are ground zero, with vastly higher rates of obesity.

But while the problem is staring us in the mirror, the solution is far more complex.

The pace of modern life, an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, the proliferation of energy-dense food and sneaky marketing don’t help.

Paradoxically, the pressure to stay in shape appears to be making it even harder for some to do so.

Many overweight people get trapped in a self-loathing cycle, using food as an emotional security blanket to deal with their inner pain.

Fat-shaming only accelerates the cycle.

Even those that have never battled the bulge should accept that shedding weight isn’t easy.

Temptation is everywhere and none of us lead a perfect life.

But as a community, we can no longer ignore this “growing” problem.

How we break the fat cycle remains a topic of blistering debate.

The most natural starting point is to ensure we at least take responsibility for those whose eating we can control, ourselves and our children.

The government can play its part by increasing education around healthy eating and making tough policy decisions about fast-food advertising.

But only by showing collective courage and confronting the gravity of the problem can we finally defuse the ticking timebomb that is obesity.