This looks like an interesting project, using digital connections to engage the wider community in developing innovative solutions to a public health problem. If you’re interested in making a pitch to VicHealth’s Seed Challenge, which aims to boost fruit and vegetable consumption in Victoria, you’d better get your running shoes on – the deadline is Friday. [...]
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High-speed broadband is high on the federal election agenda for the rural health lobby
The availability of high-speed broadband in rural and remote areas will be a critical election issue if rural health advocates have their way. The 12th National Rural Health Conference in Adelaide made 17 priority recommendations for advancing the health of rural and remote communities, with equitable access to high-speed broadband at the top of the [...]
READ MOREOn Big Food, unhealthy partnerships, and the public health benefits of regulation
When the junk food and alcohol industries seek to cosy up to health professionals and organisations, beware. The aim of such “partnerships” is to stop the sort of regulation that is needed to improve public health and safety, according to the latest JournalWatch article profiled by Dr Melissa Stoneham of the Public Health Advocacy Institute [...]
READ MORESustainability and equity concerns should have been front and centre in the new dietary guidelines
(This post was updated on 22 Feb with a response from Professor Amanda Lee, chair of the Dietary Guidelines Working Committee). As previously reported at Croakey, the long-awaited Australian Dietary Guidelines have now been released. The document is structured around five broad guidelines: To achieve and maintain a healthy weight, be physically active and choose amounts of [...]
READ MORELinking you into the new dietary and infant feeding guidelines, and more
It’s taken nearly four years, reviews of about 55,000 research publications, and endless meetings, consultations and negotiations. (Plenty of blood, sweat and tears, in other words.) Today the NHMRC finally launched the new Australian Dietary Guidelines and Infant Feeding Guidelines (available here with masses of supporting material). The aim of this post (thrown together in [...]
READ MOREA wealth of analysis: on private health insurance premiums, disability reforms and food labelling
The Parliamentary Library has recently published analyses about the increase in private health insurance premiums, the National Disability Insurance Scheme legislation, and food labelling. Thanks to the Parliamentary Library for allowing cross-posting. Increase in PHI premiums Amanda Biggs tracks premium rises and the consumer price index (CPI) and shows that premium rises have been well [...]
READ MOREFood ads’ fatuous ploys beat kids TV rules
The campaign to curb the promotion of unhealthy food has not only the strident claims of “nanny state” to counter. There are also the “health washing” tactics of the food industry, pushing high sugar, high fat and high salt products to children and their parents. These ploys range from the fatuous to the fanciful, but [...]
READ MOREDavos hears Australian voice on healthy cities
Besides former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the corporate heavyweights from Australia attending this month’s Davos economic summit was a leading figure in the campaign for healthier cities, Fiona Bull. The surging prevalence of obesity and calls for more effective measures to counter the convenience food and drink conglomerates were aired at the World Economic [...]
READ MOREFrom the public health files marked, Truth is Stranger Than Fiction
The PR and marketing strategies of the junk food and drink industries bring a whole new level of meaning to the adage that truth is stranger than fiction. If you were writing a farce, it would be hard to top these: • McDonald’s, that well known friend of children’s health and wellbeing, plans to give [...]
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Coca-Cola part of the solution to obesity? Yeah right!
According to the the 2011-12 Australian Health Survey 25.3% of children aged 5 – 17 years and 63% of adults are overweight or obese. Now it would appear that Coca-Cola believes it may be part of the solution, in America at least. Darren Powell has a counter proposal. Many thanks to The Conversation for allowing us to [...]
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