Category: Nutrition
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Supporting families to raise healthy kids: The INFANT program
Rachel Laws, Penny Love, Megan Adam, and Kylie Hesketh Anyone who has endured a high chair standoff over food, or battled nap time with an exhausted child, will know that raising a baby is not for the faint hearted. The first 1,000 days, from conception to two years, are critical.…
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Strengthening policy for impact: Making outdoor food advertising restrictions work for local governments
Clare Whitton, Frith Klug, Alexia Bivoltsis, Catrina McStay, Georgina S.A. Trapp, and Claire E. Pulker State, territory and local governments in Australia are taking steps to reduce exposure to unhealthy food advertising. This was seen through South Australia’s recent forward-thinking restrictions across state-owned buses, trains, and trams. The restrictions are…
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Diabetes and obesity rise to top of national agenda
Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin, PHAA Last night, Dr Mike Freelander, paediatrician and member for the south western Sydney seat of Macarthur, handed down the House of Representatives Health Committees Report on “The state of Diabetes Mellitus in Australia 2024”. The Report shows that five per cent of the population live…
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Pre-mixed alcohol products are driving a deceptive wellness trend in alcohol
Bella Sträuli, The George Institute for Global Health If you visit a local bottle shop this Christmas season, you could be forgiven for believing that some of the pre-mixed alcohol options on the shelf are good for you. With claims like ‘low sugar’, ‘low calorie’, ‘low carb’, ‘vegan’, and ‘gluten…
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Australia is dragging its feet on healthy eating. In 5 years we’ve made woeful progress
Gary Sacks, Deakin University and Davina Mann, Deakin University Australia is falling behind other countries in addressing the unhealthy state of our diets. Several other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada and Mexico, have recently taken major steps to help improve population nutrition and prevent obesity. But our latest assessment,…
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PHAA Life Member Christina Pollard on four decades of being curious
Associate Professor Christina Pollard (left, with PHAA President, Adjunct Professor Tarun Weeramanthri), was awarded Life Membership of the PHAA recently in Adelaide. She explains her varied career to date in this, the second story in our series of 2022 PHAA award winners. Qualifications 1981 Bachelor of Applied Science (Nutrition &…
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Who gets a say in public health nutrition? Five perspectives from the field
Christina Zorbas, Andrew Brown, Phoebe Nagorcka-Smith, Veronica Nunez, Dheepa Jeyapalan Introduction: A core tenet of public health nutrition is identifying and enacting actions to equitably improve population nutrition. We should act in a manner that proportionately addresses structural drivers of social and/or economic disadvantage. The increased focus on better including…
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“It is not just about feeding people, it’s about feeding people well,” UK expert to tell 2022 Food Futures Conference
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA With many of us preparing to shed those unwanted festive season kilos, what better time than now to plug our upcoming PHAA Food Futures Conference, which is only two months away. The online conference will be held over two days (Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 March)…
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2022 Food Futures Conference: Transforming food systems for planetary and public good
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA Background According to the United Nations, “Our population trajectory means that from now to 2030, the world will need to build the equivalent of a city of one million people in developing countries, every five days.” The Food and Agriculture: the future of sustainability executive summary…
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PHAA and SBS-TV recognise the work of ‘Too Deadly for Diabetes’ creator, Ray Kelly
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA One of the great strengths of the PHAA’s annual awards is to uncover great stories of public health best practice at work and making a big difference to people’s lives. Ray Kelly was Highly Commended in the Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Public Health Award for…
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Appetite for convenience: how the surge in online food delivery could be harming our health
PHAA For information: The World Health Organization is developing recommendations and targets for the prevention and management of obesity over the life course. The draft WHO Discussion Paper dated 17 August is available here. Member States, UN organizations, and non-State actors are invited to submit their feedback before 17 September…
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Junk food companies have no place on the Olympic sponsorship podium
Kathryn Backholer, Christina Zorbas and Florentine Martino The Tokyo Olympics is like no other before it. In the middle of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Olympic stadiums are largely empty. But with half of Australia currently under ‘stay-at-home’ orders, tuning into the Olympics may become the Nation’s biggest-ever broadcasting…
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2021 NAIDOC Week: Vital new research will help ‘Heal Country’
Public Health Association of Australia In this NAIDOC Week 2021, the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) embraces First Nations Peoples’ cultural knowledge and understanding of Country as part of Australia’s national heritage. This year’s NAIDOC theme, ‘Heal Country!’ resonates strongly with the PHAA team, as it calls for stronger…
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How well do the future leaders in Western Australia #ThinkPublicHealth?
Kelly Kennington, Hannah Pierce, and Elizabeth Connor The WA election is now days away. Some people, including the WA Opposition Leader, have already accepted the current Government will easily win on Saturday. But we shouldn’t count the votes before they’ve been cast – and we shouldn’t head to the polls…
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How unhealthy industries shape public opinions on health policy
Elly Howse Many of us working, teaching and researching in public health are aware of the impact of the commercial or corporate determinants of health – namely, how private sector companies and groups seek to influence decision making and promote the manufacturing, sale and consumption of unhealthy products and practices.…
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We are what we eat: We can all get behind the UN’s International Year of Fruits and Vegetables
Public Health Association of Australia By now, the majority of us have returned to work and well and truly put the annual excesses of the Christmas-New Year-Summer holiday season behind us. New year’s resolutions to exercise more, drink less, and eat healthier may be waning as we face the pressures…
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Boris Johnson: could he really be a champion for public health?
Jane Martin and Alexandra Jones The United Kingdom’s ground-breaking obesity strategy, launched recently by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is close to his heart. In a video introducing the ‘Better Health Strategy’, Johnson draws on his own experience with obesity and COVID-19, a frightening and potentially deadly combination. Obesity already makes us vulnerable…
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Supermarkets claim to have our health at heart. But their marketing tactics push junk foods
Supermarkets like to portray themselves as having the health of the community at heart.