Preventing Obesity: A Policy for Healthy Eating in Australia

This blog discusses the policy for healthy eating in Australia to prevent obesity. It covers the causes, prevalence rates, and interventions for behavior change. The policy proposes the NOURISHING framework for developing a proper food environment, food system, and individual behavior change. Readers can learn about the different nutritious and unhealthy food products and understand how to alter their lifestyle for better health.

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Title:
A policy to prevent the present monster of obesity:
A very interesting policy had been published in the month of November in the year 2016
that had covered one of the most concerning harmful non-communicable disorder that had made
the policy makers, the healthcare department of the government and the healthcare professionals
quite tensed. This disorder is nothing but the gowning rates of obesity that had affected more
than half of the citizens of the nation ranging from childhood to that of adult people
(http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight ). Some of the most
important causes of the disorder are the extremely busy lives of the individuals that urge them to
be satisfied with takeaway foods. Another is the improper health literacy of the different persons
that make them unaware of the different habits that are resulting in calorie accumulation as well
as the improper lifestyle management that is also culminating in the occurrence of the disorder.
Therefore, this policy has been a boon to such readers that can be followed as guidance by the
citizens. This policy is also notifying the different initiatives that the government and other
concerned authorities are taking for the ordinary citizens so that they can remain safe from the
grasp of the disorder.
This policy called the “Obesity and healthy eating in Australia Evidence summary” is
mainly published by the government of health in Victoria and had discussed different important
aspects of the diseases in details with wonderful illustrations. In the initial pages of the policy,
one can find explanation about the body mass index, discretionary food, food environment and
food system. Therefore, in a way this is a very good aspect, as it would help readers in
development of knowledge about the different important terms and the ways they associate with

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the disorder of obesity (https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/media-and-resources/publications/
obesity-and-healthy-eating-in-australia ). The policy makers had wonderfully stated the BMI
categories and how knowing the BMI can help readers to understand their health status. The
following page wonderfully portrays the prevalence rates of obesity in the nation thereby
showing its readers how obesity is gradually engulfing the nation and its prosperity. A
diagrammatic representation has been given which shows that about 27.5% of the people in the
state is obese, 35.5% of the people is overweight, about 35.5% of the people is healthy weight
and 1.75 of the people is underweight
(https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/media-and-resources/publications/obesity-and-healthy-eating-
in-australia). Their estimate has shown that such prevalence of overweight and obese people
would reach to 73% by the year 2025 that will in turn increase the burden of ill health in the
nation resulting in huge flow of resources and poor health of the nation. An interesting
discussion in the policy has shown that about 755 of the older individuals of the nation as obese
or overweight as well as 36.4% of those aged between 18 to 24. Men are found to be more in
number than the females when gender specific statistical data is found out
(https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/about-us/what-we-do/heart-disease-in-australia/overweight-
and-obesity-statistics ). Moreover, another factor that also contributes to the cause of variation in
the prevalence areas is that the rural regions in the nation as well as the remote area have more
obese and overweight individuals than the people sitting in major cities. Another interesting
factor that was also noted is that the rate of the obesity of men and women decreases with
increasing income of the household. Obesity levels of indigenous people are also much higher
than the non-indigenous resulting in huge gap in health status.

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The policy has put forward the different types of nutritious foods that are not taken by the
people of the nation. The list shows the different food products, which are quite healthy and
ensure better health status of the individuals if followed in details. There is another list beside
which shows the unhealthy food products that are taken by the people in high amount that results
in accumulation of the calories in the body resulting in development of obesity. The policy
makers have talked about the food insecurity faced by larger cohort of the population like the
people belonging to lose socio-economic classes, indigenous people, minority cultural groups
and others that make them settle with inexpensive poor quality energy dense and nutrient-poor
food that result in development of the disorder (https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-
prevention-source/obesity-causes/diet-and-weight/ ). The next page is followed by a wonderful
pie chart shaped diagram that contain the different nutritious food products that had been named
as the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating and had been prepared by National Health and
Medical Research Council. This if followed by readers would help them to maintain an effective
diet reducing the chances to be overweight. The policy makers had provided a wonderful
diagrammatic representation where side-by-side comparison diagrams are given in the form of
pie charts of the food amount taken by people in the form of recommended serves and the actual
average serves taken by Australian males
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3352603/ ). Same diagrammatic
representations are provided in the case of Australian females aged between 19 and 50 years.
This would help the readers to understand how much nutrients they are in taking and how much
more they need to take in so that they can reach the recommended level (Yumuk et al. 2014).
This would help the novice citizens to understand the changes in their daily diet that they need to
take.

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One of the most interesting factors of the policy is that they have developed an innovative
name for the framework that they have proposed for the development of the diet and lifestyle of
the citizens in the nation. They have used the initials of the word “NOURISHING” and
developed different strategies and interventions that initiates with each of the letters of the word
quoted. This can be explained with the help of an example. The first one is the “N” where the
interventions proposed is the “Nutrition label standards and regulations on the use of claims and
implied claims on foods”, then the initial “O” which states “Offer healthy foods and set standards
in public institutions and other specific settings” and so on
(https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/media-and-resources/publications/obesity-and-healthy-eating-
in-australia )). The letters from N to S in the word NOURISHING mainly proposed of
interventions for developing a proper food environment for the people, the letter H provide and
intervention that concerns around the food system and the letter I,N,G mainly promotes
intervention for behavior changes.
This policy thereby not only shows the risky behaviors of the Australians to have
discretionary foods but also shows their inadequate intake of foods that help in contributing to
good health and well-being. Therefore, this policy not only provided a dietary guideline for the
people but also ensured multi-sector collaboration that has targeted food environment, food
system as well as the requirement of the individual behavior change required. This would help in
reduction of diseases burden and therefore readers can read the policy and develop an
understanding about how they can alter their lifestyle for being fit and healthy and enjoy better
quality lives.