What would a healthy, sustainable and affordable diet for New Zealanders look like?

Focussing on positive messages is a good strategy for public health.

Finally, the announcement we’ve all been waiting for in Australia.

FSANZ has started the process of research and consultation on how to make labelling of sugar in foods and drinks clearer and easier to understand.

Carbohydrate quality is important and this positive approach to improving diet has great potential to improve public health.

Might there be unintended nutritional consequences of a diet very low in free sugars?

When our broader food system is configured to deliver profits above all, public health and environmental sustainability suffer.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a report, WHO Essential Nutrition Actions: mainstreaming nutrition throughout the life course. 

Back in February, Emeritus Professor Elaine Rush from Auckland University of Technology presented to New Zealand Nutrition Foundation members, the results of a study she had led looking at New Zealand’s food exports and imports in relation to dietary guidelines.

As the world continues to reel from the coronavirus pandemic, food has taken on an important role to help us feel better in hard times. 

The current global COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted food systems around the world.

The Healthy Food Partnership (HFP) is a collaborative program that allows the public health sector and the food industry to work together to tackle health issues such as obesity and encourage healthy eating by improving the food supply.

Chronic systemic inflammation is implicated in the development of numerous chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory and musculoskeletal disorders as well as adverse mental health outcomes.

Fear surrounding the outbreak of COVID-19 has led to panic buying and stock-piling in Australia and New Zealand.

We compiled an evidence based submission to the National Obesity Strategy consultation, here is a summary of the submission.

Oat-based muesli bars are a popular snack food for kid’s lunchboxes and there are a wide range of products available. 

Australia’s catastrophic bushfires attracted the attention of the world. Lives have been lost, and bushland, homes, wildlife, farms and infrastructure destroyed by the sheer scale and savagery of the flames.

In the first update in 10 years, Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has released draft recommendations for alcohol consumption. They recommend a reduced weekly limit of 10 standard drinks for healthy adults (1.4 a day), and no more than 4 drinks on any one day.

A panel of experts from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the American Academy of Paediatrics, the American Academy of Paediatric Dentistry and the American Heart Association, under the leadership of nutrition research organization Healthy Eating Research, have produced beverage guidelines for children from birth to age five.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) National Health Survey reports that 46% of young people aged 18-24 have a BMI over 25 and this is up from 39% since the 2014-15 figures - an 18% increase. This represents just over a million young people. Of these almost 350,000 are classified as obese- 15.5% had a BMI of 30 or more.

Data on food intake data in the first two years of life is limited, but there are some studies that report sugar intake in toddlers, including research conducted in Australia.

The French government agency - Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement, et du travail (ANSES) (French Agency for food environmental and occupational health and safety) – has set new sugar intake recommendations for adults.

There is a lot of talk about the risks of overconsumption of added sugars in foods, but how much exactly is too much? How much are we eating and which foods are they coming from? Who are those most likely to be eating too much? How do we meet intake recommendations?

Presently there is no data on consumption of added sugar in New Zealand as the last national nutrition survey for adults (2008/09) and children (2002) analysed total sugar, sucrose and fructose only. Sucrose content is derived via chemical analysis and can only provide an approximation of total added sugars.

In this provocatively titled paper published in Progress in Cardiovascular Disease, Dr Edward Archer challenges the idea that sugar is responsible for the increased prevalence of obesity and chronic disease.

There has been a growing focus on the degree of processing of foods as a way of looking at the nutrition and health relationship. A classification system has been developed however it is worth looking at the evidence surrounding the concept of ‘ultra-processed foods’.

Women’s magazines, numerous websites and even some dermatologists warn against eating sugar because of its adverse effects on skin. They say it ages skin, making it look dull and tired. We investigate these claims and examine the evidence.

The Australian Beverages Council announced 80% of the (non-alcoholic) beverage industry including the big players Coca-Cola and Pepsi have signed up to their agreement to cut sugar in drinks by 20% between now and 2025.

Flavoured milk has attracted controversy because it contains added sugar. Dairy Australia have developed a new resource for health professionals on flavoured milk that gathers the evidence.

The New Zealand Ministry of Health engaged the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) to write a report on sugar taxes in 2017. The report has just been made public.

The Australian national broadcaster’s flagship current affairs program 4 Corners has weighed in to the sugar debate with their program, Tipping the scales that aired on Monday April 30.

The George Institute for Global Health and the Nielsen market research company have announced a new partnership to explore how nutrition information on food packages influences consumer choices.

Milo came under attack from advocacy groups such as Choice and The Obesity Policy Coalition because the HSR on pack was calculated based on the serving suggestion of Milo with skim milk (HSR 4.5), rather than the Milo powder on its own (HSR 1.5).

There is demand for sugar-free foods, but do the products deliver on their better-for-you promise? We investigate the two largest categories, soft drinks and confectionery.

The idea that eating sugar causes diabetes persists despite an increased understanding of the complex and multi-factorial aetiology of type 2 diabetes. We asked one of the nutrition community’s wise elders, Professor Paul Nestel for his words of wisdom on the topic.

The idea that sugar is an addictive substance that creates neurobiological changes similar to those in drug addiction is popular. The authors of this paper reviewed human and animal neuroscience studies on sugar and compared it with studies on drug addiction to find out if sugar could indeed be acting like a drug that could contribute to overeating and obesity.

Joanna Baker is a foodie, Dietitian and Registered nurse, who is passionate about digestive health. She now works exclusively on IBS and food intolerance, dividing her time between consulting as an advisor to FODMAP Friendly and Everyday Nutrition, her Melbourne based private practice.

Despite the media focus on sugar, our biggest nutritional issue is eating too many discretionary foods. The last National Health Survey results showed Australians over 2 years of age are consuming 35% of their total kilojoules as discretionary foods (1).

Interview with Dr Jane Muir
Dr Jane Muir is currently Head of Translational Nutrition Science in the Department of Gastroenterology at Monash University. She is a trained dietitian with a PhD in biochemistry and has over 20 years experience in the area of nutrition research. Her major research focus has been on the important role of fermentable carbohydrates in the health of the gastrointestinal tract.

Fructose has developed a bad name, with some products even boasting they are free-from fructose. While there are varied concerns around fructose, we’ve chosen to focus on claims around adverse affects on the liver.

Obesity is a global epidemic, leading to serious diseases, premature death and increased health costs (1). New Zealand and Australia currently rank in the top five most obese nations in the OECD and show little sign of improving, with obesity continuing to climb in both countries, increasing across all age groups and both genders in the last decade (2,3).

Interview with Louise BurkeOAM, PhD, APD, FACSM
Louise is a sports dietitian with over 35 years of experience with elite athletes. She has been Head of Sports Nutrition at the Australian Institute of Sport since 1990 and the team dietitian for the Australian Olympic Teams for the 1996-2012 Summer Olympic Games.

A sugar tax is a tax on sugary drinks, also called a Sugar Sweetened Beverage Tax (SSBT). Public health advocates say an SSBT in Australia and New Zealand could help reduce consumption of SSBs and thereby reduce obesity and other associated diseases.

The data in this report was obtained from an online survey of a nationally representative sample of 3000 consumers and food decision-makers aged over 18 years conducted in December 2015.

Dyslipidemia refers to abnormal levels of lipids in the blood: typically, elevated levels of total cholesterol (TC) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), elevated triglycerides (TG) and/or low levels of high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). There is debate as to whether high TG themselves contribute to cardiovascular risk, or whether they are just a marker of risk because high triglycerides are linked to low HDL-C, obesity and type 2 diabetes. Whether high TG are a participant in- or just a spectator of - increased cardiovascular risk remains unclear.

Our consumption of added sugars has been widely debated. Now, hot on the heels of the Lei et al (2016) paper from Sydney University we reported on last month, the ABS has released a secondary analysis 'Australian Health Survey: Consumption of Added Sugars' using the same methodology (modified slightly) and finds similar results.

The National Heart Foundation of Australia is retiring its Tick Program after 26 years (the New Zealand Heart Foundation Tick Program is continuing).

Wellness enthusiasts promote the health benefits of ‘real food’ that is as close to nature as possible. When it comes to added sugars “natural” sugars are seen as healthier than refined cane sugar. Maple syrup and honey are recommended over cane sugar, and fruit syrups are used in order to make ‘no added cane sugar’ claims on foods, but are they better for you than regular cane sugar?

Some evidence suggests low-carb, high protein diets may lead to greater weight loss in the short term. However, very low carbohydrate, high protein diets may not be safe in the long term. Low carb and low-sugar diets are based on the notion that carbohydrates and sugar are specifically problematic for weight gain.

Athletes are now spoilt for choice when it comes to the plethora of sports drinks on the market. With varying osmolality, electrolyte composition and carbohydrate levels there are many considerations an athlete must make (including flavour and personal tolerability) when choosing the appropriate sports drink.

By Bill Shrapnel
Professor Jennie Brand-Miller from Sydney University refers to carbohydrate as the ‘default nutrient’ – nutritionists assumed it was beneficial for health because they were concerned about everything else. Saturated fat raised LDL-cholesterol; unsaturated fats were still fats and therefore were treated with suspicion; protein was assumed to be a constant; and alcohol was out of the question.