Working together to improve the health of New Zealanders

ANA Media Release 10 March 2004

If you are confused by all the nutrition information around, do not worry, you are not alone. Recommendations and guidelines for healthy eating vary from time to time (often reflecting new research or a new line of thinking) but the basic rules have not changed for years. So what are the sound healthy eating messages? These don't hit the headlines very often, but we can turn to two reliable and credible sources to answer this question.

Firstly the New Zealand Food and Nutrition Guidelines for Healthy Adults that have been recently updated by the Ministry of Health. They are as follows:

For adults these include eating a variety of nutritious foods from the four major food groups each day

• Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables.
• Eat plenty of bread and cereals, preferably wholegrain.
• Have milk and milk products in your diet, preferably reduced or low fat options.
• Include lean meat, poultry, seafood, eggs and alternatives.

Prepare foods or choose pre-prepared foods and drinks and snacks:

• with minimal added fat, especially saturated fat
• that are low in salt; if using salt used iodised salt
• with little added sugar; limit your intake of high-sugar foods.

Drink plenty of liquids each day, especially water

If choosing to drink alcohol, limit your intake.

Being physically activity at least 30 minutes most days of the week is recommended.

Another way of describing healthy eating is by using the food pyramid. There was quite a lot of debate and confusion around the food pyramid and nutrition last year when Harvard University put forward an alternative. The food pyramid was never adopted as the official NZ food model to illustrate healthy eating but it has been used by health professionals as a simple, easily understood model as it reflected the Food and Nutrition Guidelines. This pyramid is still the best model we have in New Zealand today as a tool to educate the public on healthy eating. However it does suffer from a lack of detail as it doesn't give information on serving sizes, and the better types of fat and breads and cereals.

The key messages of the food pyramid are:

• Foods at the base of the pyramid (vegetables & fruit, breads & cereals) should form the base of our diets.
• Foods in the middle section of the pyramid (fish, meat, chicken, eggs, legumes, milk & milk products and nuts) should be eaten in moderation.
• Foods at the top of the pyramid (high in fat, sugar and salt) should be eaten in the smallest amounts.

To add the detail to this model:

• Your bread and cereal intake should be mainly wholemeal or wholegrain.
• Aim to eat a number of different coloured fruit and vegetables each day. Fresh, frozen or canned are all counted.
• Aim to eat 1-2 meals of fish each week – canned fish can be convenient and economical.
• Use a combination of vegetable oils e.g. olive or canola rather than butter or lard.
• Use reduced fat milk and milk products.

There is a professional coalition of leading nutrition and physical activity organisations called Agencies for Nutrition Action (ANA) who come together to work on common issues. ANA member organizations have some very good programmes that help address poor nutrition and obesity. One of reasons they work together is to support consistent nutrition messages to the community. "Our job, as agencies involved in nutrition health promotion, is to promote the Food and Nutrition Guidelines to other health professionals and to the general public. If we can do this and encourage New Zealanders to follow the guidelines we know that there would be a significant improvement in our health" says Carolyn Watts, Chairperson, Agencies for Nutrition Action.

The members of ANA include the Cancer Society, the Heart Foundation, Diabetes NZ, NZ Nutrition Foundation, NZ Dietetic Association, and Te Hotu Manawa Maori, Pacific Island Food and Nutrition Action Group, NZ Recreation Association and Home Economic and Technology Teachers Association. The Ministry of Health and Sport and Recreation NZ are observer members. ANA brings together a wealth of nutrition and physical knowledge and expertise.

For both long term good health and to achieve a healthy weight the nutrition messages are the same. When it comes to achieving a healthy body weight, there is so much more at stake than simply looking good. There is evidence that food plays a significant part in both preventing and causing diseases such as heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and some cancers.

There is no dispute that obesity is increasing in New Zealand. The statistics are alarming. Ministry of Health figures show us in the nine years between 1989 and 1997 there was an staggering 55% increase in obesity. One in two adults were overweight or obese. Results from the 2002 National Children's Nutrition Survey tell us that just over 30%of our children are also either overweight or obese. From the a Ministry of Health report published at the end of last year called Nutrition and the Burden of Disease health experts estimate that poor nutrition has a role in about 40% of deaths in New Zealand, that is, 11,000 death per year.

The statistics are not good and poor nutrition including obesity are issues that cannot be ignored. The challenge is to make the healthy choices the easy choices and by applying the Food and Nutrition guidelines to the way we eat will contribute to long term good health.

For more information on Agencies for Nutrition Action visit www.ana.org.nz.

For more information and comment contact:
Nicola Chilcott, Executive Officer
Agencies for Nutrition Action
Phone 04 499 6362 or 027 442 2051

Carolyn Watts, Chairperson
Agencies for Nutrition Action
Phone 04 494 7276 or 025 517 359