Food Policy to Promote Healthy and Sustainable Food System

Running Head: Food Policy
Food Policy to Promote Healthy and
Sustainable Food System
Report
System04104
8/29/2019

Food Policy 1
Introduction
Unhealthy diet and poor food system are the major causes of obesity, diabetes, and other
health related issues in Australian people. Unhealthy diet is the major contributor to poor
health in Australian people. To resolve the issues related to obesity and other health issues
that arise because of poor dietary system in people requires comprehensive support from both
federal and state government of Australia. This report analyses the gap between current and
required food policy that reduces the gap and provide better health for people. This report is
based on the current Australian policy related to food and diet and the objective of this report
is to formulate a new food policy for the country to promote the healthy and sustainable diets
in Australia.
Healthy and Sustainable Diet and Current National Diet
Tackling health issues related to obesity and malnutrition in children requires a high degree
of political will to eliminate this problem from the society. It is only possible if the
government will implement a strict food policy and increase the taxes on the chemical
products like Cold drinks, sugary drinks, unhealthy foods, and other food items that badly
affect the health of Australian people. Every two adult people out of three adults (almost
63%) are suffering from obesity in Australia and everyone children out of four (25%) are
suffering from obesity. These stats clearly show the failure of current Australian food policy
[1].
What is Healthy and Sustainable Diet?
Australia has developed food policy index in 2017 to measure the effectiveness of its food
policy. However, for an effective and successful food policy, it is essential for the country to
co-ordinate with the state policies and approaches the states to take corrective actions to
eliminate unhealthy diets from the society [12]. To ensure the success of food policies, it is
essential to know about the requirements of a healthy and sustainable food diet:
The concept of sustainable diet is not a new phenomenon; rather it is very complex to
understand. Changes to more dietary patterns are needed to reduce environmental burden on
the country. However, to plan sustainable and healthy diets the other factors such as
economic, social, and cultural factors also need to be considered [14]. According to the Food
and Agriculture Organisation of USA, sustainable food items or diets are those food items,

Food Policy 2
which have very low impact on natural environment and also help the human being to stay
healthy and fit. The sustainable diet is healthy for both present and future generation and does
not affect the health of human beings. The characteristics of sustainable and healthy diet food
items are as follow:
1. Sustainable food items are healthy and very suitable for our ecosystem and maintains
the biodiversity.
2. The sustainable food items are culturally acceptable for all people and accessible for
everyone.
3. These types of foods are affordable for every people and have all the nutrition
elements.
4. The sustainable food items are healthy, secure for the people, and do not have any
negative effects on the human health.
It is also considerable that every primary production of food is not environment friendly or
healthy. For example, farming of rice need too much water and it also emitted too much
greenhouse gases that effect our environment. Most of the primary food system in the world
is consuming more than 30% of energy and accountable for more than 30% of greenhouse
gas emission [21]. However, it has been found in many researches that consuming
environment friendly products and avoiding the animal-based food items is not always
helpful for environment rather it has some negative effects on body as it increases the
chances of other health related issues such as infection or poisoning. Although, the positive
side of this sustainable food consumption approach is that it reduces the mortality risk and
reduced environmental burden. The various scholars and researchers have found that
environmental or natural food items like fruits and diets have low GHGE value (indicator of
climate change) in compare to the animal-based products such as eggs, meat, pork, beef, or
milk. These products are adversely related with the human health while environment
sustainable food items like Apple, orange, or any green vegetables have very low GHGE
value [2].
The Current National Diet
The current Australian food policy is related with the five food groups, which attract the
Australian people toward the healthy diet. The five food groups are as follow:

Food Policy 3
1. Fruits are considered under the environmental products and it is very suitable for our
ecosystem and biodiversity. Fruits have no negative impact on the human health of
body.
2. Vegetables including legumes/beans
3. Grain foods such as rice, wheat, etc. on which most people rely for life and food.
4. Lean Meats product such as meat, eggs, fish, seeds, etc.
5. Milk, Cheese, and other alternative products like these food items.
The Australian government and its food policy consider these five groups of food items and it
is really beneficial for the human health if they intake these food items in balanced form.
Excessive intake of these items is really dangerous for the human health and for their lives.
Animal-Based foods Vs. Plant-Based Foods
Animal foods are those foods, which are related to the animals such as animal meats, eggs, or
other organs of animals in form of food products. Generally, it has been considered that
animal foods such as meat and eggs are very nutritious but it somewhere a challenge for
biodiversity in the region. However, consuming animal products give many types of vitamins
and nutrition to human body such as B12, B15, B6, B7, thiamine, Vitamin A and K etc. [11].
However, it is considerable that animal products completely lack in Fibre element, which is
crucial for human body.
Plant-based products or food items are those food items, which grows by people through
agriculture or farming. Plant-based foods are fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, etc. These are
more sustainable food items than animal-based food items. The plant-based food items are
healthy for people and having many nutritious elements that is healthy for the people. It is
really crucial for the people to consume plant-based foods instead of animal-based food to
stay fit and healthy. It has been found in many researches that people who consume plant-
based food items tend to live longer and healthier life than those people who consume
animal-based foods. These people also avoid the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease
[3].
Discretionary Foods
Discretionary foods are those food items, which are fabricated such as biscuits, cold drinks,
etc. These food items not need to provide nutrients to the human body and it is not
necessarily healthy for the body. The discretionary items may be harmful for the health.
Discretionary items also include dairy products like ice creams etc. The junk foods items are