THE HON TRISH WORTH MP
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for
Health and Ageing
TW 42/2003
Tuesday 14 October 2003
BALANCING FOOD & FITNESS FOR NATIONAL NUTRITION WEEK
Parents have a crucial role in encouraging their children to exercise and eat healthy food, and help reduce the chances of them being overweight.
Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Trish Worth, launching National Nutrition Week at Parliament House in Canberra, said parents can help their children by following simple guidelines on what to eat and how to keep fit.
The theme for this year’s National Nutrition Week is ‘Energy – Balancing Food and Fitness’.
Ms Worth said Nutrition Australia has provided a number of tips to help parents provide an environment which encourages better health and less overweight children. Things that can be done include:
- encouraging your children to be active - be a role model and join in;
- planning healthy evening meals that are easy to prepare and fit into your busy schedule;
- if you are buying fast food avoid the 'upsized' portions which have a high load of extra fat and energy;
- keep soft drinks and confectionery items to 'occasional' foods and drink water to quench your thirst;
- looking for healthy foods that help you to feel full;
- reading food labels on packaged foods; and
- encouraging your children to develop their cooking skills (turn a blind eye to the mess!).
“It is the balance between the energy we take in through food and drink and the energy we use through our daily activity that determines our body fat levels,” Ms Worth said.
“Increasing physical activity and reducing serving sizes of meals are key areas that will help to address the current obesity problem in Australia. Australian Government guidelines recommend that we eat at least five serves of vegetables and two pieces of fruit and undertake at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day.
“Once we start to follow this simple practical advice we will start to feel better and have better energy levels.”
Ms Worth said chronic diseases now contribute to 42% of the burden of disease in Australia with 3.3 million Australians being obese and a further 5.6 million being overweight.
“We need to seriously think about our eating patterns activity levels,” Ms Worth said.
“The Australian Government is committed to the prevention of chronic diseases. Developing healthy lifestyles is a key to achieving this.
“Among other things, the Australian Government is working closely with State and Territory governments through the National Obesity Taskforce to develop a national approach to address the problem of obesity in the Australian population. This includes drawing on Australia’s public health strategyEat Well Australia.
“However, governments can only do so much, as at some stage we all have to take responsibility for healthy eating both for ourselves and for our families.
“Like investing for financial security, we also need to look at investing in our health so that we can aim to live long and active lives.
Ms Worth said Nutrition Australia has been promoting healthy eating for several decades, providing advice that is simple to understand, has been consistent over the years, and reflects the Australian Government’s dietary guidelines.
For more information go to www.nutritionaustralia.org for more on how to balance food and physical activity or to download the Nutrition Week Kit.
Speech: Hon Trish Worth launching National Nutrition Week - 14 October 2003
Media contacts: Mark Williams, Ms Worth’s Office 0401 147 558
Aloysa Hourigan, Nutrition Australia 0417 078 956