Public Health Nutrition in Australia - Assignment Example

Week 2 Discussion The Australian Guide for healthy Eating was developed for the Australian Department of Health and Aging. It really was meant for most ages except for small children although there is a chart for younger children. It discusses the five food groups including bread, veggies, fruit, dairy, and meat. There are practical suggestions such as whole grains and what serving sizes are. It reviews some extra foods such as donuts and sweet biscuits and what a regular serving should be. There are shopping suggestions and examples of proportions such as making a stir fry for one person and making a stir fry for two or several. Snack suggestions are covered as well as meal suggestions. At the end of the booklet, there are charts covering most age groups telling the public how many servings they should have of each food group based on age and gender. The last thing in the booklet gives you blank tables and ideas on how to build your own healthy eating pattern tailored to fit you. This is an excellent resource for anyone to use as it realizes the fact that everyone has a different habit of eating and it works that habit to provide healthier ideas. www.health.gov.au Week 3 Discussion Growing strong is a great resource that is a full package containing a manual, a participant workbook, and a facilitator package for health workers and an illustrated client book. This is a pretty complete resource. Practice sessions with public nurses from those sectors might be of some help. Having people from these villages help develop the next resource might also be very helpful, gaining buy in to the new program. According to BBC news there is also a problem with spoiled food in remote groceries so that will definitely need to be looked into in this case to assure that mum is getting the nutrition she needs to produce the nutrition the child needs. www.healthinfonet.eau.eu.edu.au/healthrresources/programs-projects?pid=318. Week 4 Discussion The colors used for the food groups at selection sites for the children in schools are helpful. Green is for plenty, meaning they can have how much they want. Amber is to be careful about how much is chosen and which things are chosen. Red should only be chosen occasionally. The problem that comes to mind is that children are used to eating the things in the red category. This may mean that in order to get them to choose the green ones most often, they may need to make them more attractive in some way such as faces or other fun things. There is also the issue that the parents will need to understand the system so they can carry it out in the home also. It will not help at all if they learn to eat well at school and then go home and have sweet biscuits. There is the issue, also, of affordability. It is more expensive to eat the healthy way and some of these parents may not be able to afford that. It is cheaper for kids to fill up on cookies than fresh apples. Initiatives probably need to follow up on that. www.education.qid.gov.au./schools/healthy/docs/smart-choices-strategy.pdf. Week 5 Many adults are at nutritional risk because of poverty, inadequate food intake due to social isolation, depression, dementia or poor oral health. There are also physiological and functional changes and chemosensory changing during aging. Upon entering a retirement home, many of these patients bring these issues with them, though there are many who have not yet encountered these problems. The numbers of older adults is rising rapidly and dietary guidelines are important in their health. Low cost nutritious meals should be provided with the essential nutrients for a day in areas where there clients can get to them easily. Participation in meal programs also has a positive social connection which is positive for moral behavior and well being. Therefore providing the availability of meals in a dining room situation where people can also meet socially is important. Those that cannot avail themselves of these amenities should not be forgotten. A menu of deliverable meals should be available to those that must stay in their apartments because of inability to move about or illness. These meals should be healthy and easy to prepare. Wunderlich, S., (2009). Enhancing government sponsored nutrition programs for older adults by integrating exercise programs. Topics in Clinical Nutrition. 21(1). 45-53. Week 6 Buying food to provide for the nutritional aspects as well as energy aspects with $5 per day and no transportation was nearly impossible. Considering the food groups cannot even be a part of the agenda, instead it is what can I buy that will fill me up and give me some energy and that I do not have to cook? Some limited fresh fruit and vegetables could be purchased but very limited. It was more successful to buy canned fruits and vegetables or beans. Meat of any kind was out of the question as buy it fresh meant it had to be cooked and anything canned was too expensive. Donuts and cookies were a good choice and even those were quite a hike away. However things like donuts and cookies were easy to carry back, and keep without having to cook or have electricity to store. This was very telling to those of us who are developing programs for the use of those that cannot afford the program. Week 7 The article allows that it is extremely difficult to get produce into the villages on a regular basis and that people have to buy rotten produce. There has been a recent initiative put together for the same reason in the remote villages of British Columbia which is working very well. It takes a collaborative effort with government, food suppliers, and producers to ensure that this produce is available fresh. The following three things were used to solve this problem and would also work under these circumstances. 1. Community gardens are established within each of the rural communities providing fresh produce for part of the year. The money needed to create these gardens is provided by the government as is the education to help them learn to do this on their own. 2. Group buying plans are created for local retailers in an effort to increase purchasing power and distribution. Storing practices were looked at and improved throughout these communities. 3. Supports and incentives were created to encourage carriers to move the produce to these remote communities. www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news-releases-2009-2013/2009AL0019-000569.htm Week 8 Obesity continues to increase in Australia as in the rest of the world. It is accelerated in the children. Obesity rates range from 17% average in Victoria to 19.6% in South Australia. Overweight is 34.2% in Queensland and 36.3% in Victoria. There is a strong prevalence between obesity and television and lower physical activity time in Australia. This is supported by a study done by the Australia diabetes, obesity, and lifestyle study. It was found that the higher the amount of time that one watches TV, the bigger chance they will be obese. This holds true with a decreased amount of time in physical activity also. There is a confirmation in the study of sedentary lifestyle in obesity. This coupled with the eating habits seen in a gutful show a great deal of the reasons why obesity is growing so fast. The main issues causing diabetes in Australia are smoking, decreased physical activity, television viewing, and decreased educational level and decreased weekly income. Cameraon, A., Welborn, T., Zimmel, P et.al. (2003). Overweight and obesity in Australia: the 1999-2000 Australia diabetes, obesity, and lifestyle study. MJA. 178(9). 427-432. Week 9 Life cannot exist without nutrients. If even one nutrient is continually missing, the organism will die. One person dies of a diet related disease every second. The global burden of iron deficiency has risen from about 35% of the world population in 1960 to 50% in 2000. Iron deficiency among poor women is increasing very rapidly throughout the world. Humans need 51 nutrients in adequate amounts. Global food systems do not provide them. The Green Revolution increased the numbers of grains available and provided rice, wheat, and maize to many in the world that were starving. Cereals only provide carbohydrates and small traces of protein through. The people are saved from being hungry but not from starving. Part of the problem is the limited food diversity which happens because of the change in agricultural practices. Once, cropping systems provided a much more diverse group of vegetables, many of which are not now available. This is also true of fruits. Agriculture is the key to improving human nutrition and health but it will have to be a change in how food is produced now. www.csscornell.edu/faculty/hobbs. Read More