Results tagged “Nutrition strategy” from Weight Loss & Nutrition News

What do obesity, hunger and food insecurity, the declining number of farms, water and air pollution from factory farms, the prevalence of unhealthy food choices and the lack of quality, affordable foods have in common?
     
First, each represents a complex issue of public concern linked to our food system.

Second, achieving meaningful solutions will require coordinated effort among the agriculture industry, health professionals, nutritionists, anti-hunger advocates, environmental groups and government.

NEW YORK - There are plenty of things in Kentucky Fried Chicken that are bad for your health — cholesterol, saturated fat and salt, to name a few. But only one has the potential to get the colonel’s recipe banned in New York City.

That ingredient is artificial trans fatty acids, which are so common that the average American eats 4.7 pounds a year, according to the Food and Drug Administration. City health officials say these so-called trans fats are so unhealthy they belong in the same category as food spoiled by rodent droppings.

On Monday, the Board of Health will hold its first public hearing on a proposal to make New York the first U.S. city to ban restaurants from serving food containing artificial trans fats.

The government is considering introducing a traffic-light colour coded system on packaging to indicate if a food is healthy.

The proposal was debated at a meeting of the Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council in Sydney, which was chaired by Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, Christopher Pyne.

The council, which includes ministers responsible for food issues in Australia and New Zealand, is considering a plan to introduce nutrition labelling on the front of packs.

New report from MoH shows alarming trends in nutrition

A new report showing that the average Kiwi household spends more on confectionary every week than on fresh fruit underlines just how challenging it will be to improve the nutrition of New Zealand families, Health Minister Pete Hodgson said today.

The Food and Nutrition Monitoring Report 2006 – released by the Minister today – includes the latest information on food supply and purchasing patterns, food and nutrient intake, nutritional status and factors influencing dietary intake.

Over 700,000 babies and children could be saved every year in the Eastern Mediterranean region if countries adopted some simple low cost health measures, say researchers in this week's British Medical Journal.

The Eastern Mediterranean region accounts for 1.4 million deaths among children under 5 every year. Most of these occur in just seven countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, and Yemen) where mortality exceeds 50 for every 1,000 live births.

Yet more than half of these deaths could be prevented if these countries implemented a range of proven, low cost health measures, write Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta and colleagues.

by S. Anderson and E. Lerch, 19 Oct 2006

In response to national trends, West’s administration has taken an aggressive stance on the fight against obesity this year. The district has made food healthier, portions smaller, and the vending machines are making a slow change to diet sodas and juice. Assistant Principal Peter Cernohous believes the changes are responding to national health concerns.

“We switched to healthy food because there had been a major concern of obesity, and a lot of kids at West go for the junk food at lunch,” he said.

Philippines - The government is taking its fight against malnutrition to a new level through the e-nutrition portal, a website that would help arrest the problem of "double burden of malnutrition" prevalent in developing countries, including the Philippines.

The recently-launched http://www.enutrition.fnri.dost.gov.ph portal offers features and key nutrition information, including basic nutritional guide, Body Mass Index calculator, and the nutri-GIS (geographical information system) that identify areas plagued by malnutrition.

Food Company Danone-Serdika Bulgaria started the second stage of an educational campaign for healthy nutrition aimed to the children on October 17.

The company organized a performance lesson that included tests and task that will help the children learn the "golden rules" for healthy nutrition while solving tasks and lessons. At the end of the event, the children received a certificate for the successful completion of the course.

The Bangladeshi government and the World Bank (WB) on Sunday signed an agreement to provide 460 million U.S. dollars of Development Partners Grant Fund for the Bangladesh's Health Nutrition and Population Sector Program (HNPSP) , local news agency UNB reported.

The HNPSP builds on Bangladesh's achievements in the health sector, targeting resources at the poor and aiming to create a healthcare system that is efficient and accountable to users.

The project has three components. The first one focuses on accelerating the achievements of the health related Millennium Development Goals and the government's poverty reduction strategies and population policy objectives.

The Food Standards Agency and the Department of Health have set up a nutrition strategy steering group and held the first meeting last week. The NSSG is chaired jointly by FSA chair Deirdre Hutton and public health minister Caroline Flint.

The group brings together representatives from consumer and health groups but also industry representatives including Sainsbury’s Justin King and Waitrose md Steven Esom.