Changing environments leads to healthier lifestyles

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Changing mindsets around food and drinks is a key way to help change obesity trends in Australia, the leader of a health advocacy group says.

Food for Health Alliance executive manager Jane Martin said obesity had become a serious health problem in Australia, overtaking tobacco smoking as the leading preventable disease risk factor.

Ms Martin said there were a number of drivers behind this, but that heavy promotion of unhealthy food and sugary drinks was a key contributor that particularly impacted children.

“For children, digital platforms are very persuasive and influential and although we’ve seen SA lead the way with the social media ban, children will still be exposed to marketing through platforms like YouTube,” she said.

“ … The exposure is happening because children can access that platform without being logged into an account.”

As part of its preventative health measures, the SA Government recently restricted advertising of unhealthy foods and drinks on Government buses, trams and trains.

Ms Martin said policies like those were an important way to drive changes to social norms around food and drink.

“South Australia’s move to remove junk food advertising off public transport is really important, given the number of children that are accessing that,” she said.

“(The advertising is) all creating this social norm around these products, so removing that marketing – replacing it with other things that aren’t harmful to children’s health – is really important in changing social norms in the same way that we have done with tobacco smoking.”

The biggest contributor to excess sugar in Australian diets is sugary drinks, which contribute to heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, poor dental health, mental health conditions and long-term weight gain and obesity through excess energy intake.

“A lot of people don’t know how much sugar is in these drinks, and what is a sugary drink – that sports drinks and energy drinks are also high sugar,” Ms Martin said.

“Especially parents, we found, are not very aware of that.”

But she said public education programs, like the State Government’s LiveLighter campaign, had a proven track record of achieving change in public behavior.

The campaign aims to educate the public about the harm caused by unhealthy foods and, particularly sugary drinks, and provide tools – such as a sugary drink calculator, healthy recipes and strategies to reduce sugar intake – to assist the public with healthier food choices.

“These campaigns show reductions in consumption,” Ms Martin said.

“The other thing they can do is increase support for policy reform as well.

“So increase acceptance of these sorts of drinks not being available in health care settings and schools and that kind of thing.”