Healthy Eating - Healthy Action

Oranga Kai - Oranga Pumau

What’s happening now? – Implementing HEHA (Healthy Eating - Healthy Action)

National Initiatives

The examples listed below have not all come about because of HEHA, and are not all Ministry led or have Ministry involvement but may contribute to the desired outcomes of HEHA. . These examples are just a few of the many activities happening in the area of nutrition, physical activity and obesity.

• Mission On
• Tripartitie Agreement
• The Food Industry Accord
• Fruit in Schools
• National Bike Wise Week
• Obstacles to Action: A Study of New Zealanders' Physical Activity and Nutrition
• Green Prescriptions
• The Obesity Action Coalition
• Agencies for Nutrition Action
• Pacific Obesity Prevention in Communities Project
• WHO Global Strategy for Diet, Physical Activity and Health
• Review of the New Zealand Interpretation of the WHO Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes
• Joint Projects with the New Zealand Food Safety Authority

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Mission On

Promoting healthy eating and encouraging Kiwi kids to become more active is the focus of a four-year $67 million campaign launched by the Government in September.

Entitled ‘Mission On’, the government-wide initiative aims to slash New Zealand’s growing obesity rates and reverse declining levels of physical activity among New Zealanders from birth to 24 years. More than 50 per cent of New Zealanders are now either overweight or obese, and more than 30 per cent of New Zealand children can be classified the same.

Announcing the initiative, Prime Minister Helen Clark said an “obesity epidemic threatens to undo New Zealanders’ quality of life”.

“Unless something changes, the current generation of New Zealanders may very well be the first to die at a younger age than their parents. By improving nutrition and reversing the declining levels of physical activity among young Kiwis, New Zealand will be in a much better place to prevent obesity,” said the Prime Minister.

There are 10 key initiatives under Mission On, including:

• Improving nutrition in schools and early childhood centres
• Student health promotion
• A new ‘Celebrity Lifestyle’ ambassador campaign
• New guidelines on advertising food to children
• Youth focused websites
• Use of television and radio to encourage change
• Screen-free time away from TVs and computers
• Encouraging Government employees to ‘Get Active’
• Expanding the ‘Green Prescriptions’ programme, and
• Health impact assessments on all new policy and legislation.

Mission On builds on the existing cross-government programmes within schools, early childhood education centres and communities around New Zealand. These include Push Play, Active Schools, Fruit in Schools, Active Movement (early childhood) and Active Communities.

For further information about Mission On visit the Sport & Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) website.

Tripartite Agreement

In July 2004 the Ministries of Education and Health and SPARC jointly signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding, Towards Improving the Health and Well-being of New Zealand Children. The memorandum formalises their collaborative approach to improve young people’s well-being, particularly in the areas of nutrition and physical activity.

The Food Industry Accord

The Accord is an industry initiative that aims to support and complement HEHA.  On 2 September 2004, The Food Industry Accord was signed by a number of participants in the New Zealand Food Industry including food producers, distributors, retailers, marketers, advertisers and media. Their mission is to do all that is possible to encourage all sectors of the food industry to create commercially successful products and services that will make a positive contribution to the health of New Zealanders.

Fruit in Schools

The Ministry has established a ‘Fruit in Schools’ (FIS) programme that is offered to high-needs primary schools that are prepared to commit to being sun smart and smokefree and promoting both increased physical activity and healthy food. The FIS programme is currently running in 114 schools through 13 DHBs. An initial evaluation report found that the FIS implementation appears to have gone well and school liaison people and advisors were very supportive of the initiative. There has been a focus to date on offering the programme to low decile (high deprivation) schools and to date the programme has included 47 of a total of the 74 decile 1a schools.

Free fruit in schools hits the spot The success of a pilot “free fruit in schools” project within lower decile Auckland primary schools has demonstrated how children can be guided towards healthier eating habits, says project manager Paula Dudley. The pilot was run in 20 schools (ten intervention and ten control) during term two of 2004. Early results show 66 percent of the 2000 children taking part ate the free fruit each day, with a further 20 percent eating it three or four times a week. “Hardly anyone turned it down, and in fact, the kids who the staunchest at the beginning with their ‘nobody tells us what to eat’ attitudes ended up being our most enthusiastic supporters,” says Ms Dudley. “The pilot has shown that more than half the children in these lower decile schools don’t eat the recommended two serves of fruit a day, but if you offer it in the classroom, the uptake can be quite phenomenal. Availability is the key.” Ms Dudley came up with the idea after seeing the success of a similar pilot in the United Kingdom. That project has now been rolled out nationally. Adapting the scheme to New Zealand, fruit was delivered free of charge to ten decile one schools in Auckland, with another ten acting as the control group. Those control schools received free fruit over the following term, as a way of saying thanks. Varieties included apples, bananas, nashi, pears, oranges, mandarins, persimmon, plums and carrots. The average cost for produce and freight for fruit to be delivered twice a week to one school for one school term was $5,800. Dr Pauline Ashfield-Watt, of Massey University’s Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health, undertook evaluation of the pilot. Ms Dudley says hardly any of the children taking part had ever tasted a plum before. While younger children were the fastest to modify their eating habits, older children also developed voracious appetites, once their initial suspicions were overcome. As for why the children weren’t eating fruit at home, the reasons were quite diverse. “Some said it just easier to have a pie, because it filled them up, and in other cases we were aware of peer group pressure, where fruit simply wasn’t cool,” she says. “And interestingly, Pacific children often said they didn’t want to eat certain fruits associated with where their families came from, because those fruits were considered down-market.” Ms Dudley says teachers were universally in favour of the project. It made the existing ‘5+ a day’ promotional programme a reality. “All the teachers wanted it continued - most said it should be rolled out nationally.” Sadly, fruit intake had decreased to almost original levels within six weeks of the project ending, reinforcing the need for more extended research. Current ideas are either a nationwide pilot, or a small number of schools surveyed over a longer period. Ms Dudley says having identified the “huge need”, she would now like to see free fruit in every lower-decile school in the country.

National Bike Wise Week

National Bike Wise Week website

Obstacles to Action: A Study of New Zealanders' Physical Activity and Nutrition

A SPARC study, Obstacles to Action: A Study of New Zealanders' Physical Activity and Nutrition, has revealed the key motivators and barriers to physical activity experienced by inactive people - an estimated 1.3 million adult New Zealanders (ACNielsen 2003).

Key motivators include:

• awareness that physical activity is good for you;
• desire to maintain a healthy weight; and
• desire for approval by others.

Key barriers include:

• lack of time and/or energy;
• lack of encouragement or support from others; and
• difficulty in sticking to a routine.

The study has also identified six distinct types of inactive people who intend to become active, each with their own distinct needs, motivations, attitudes and behaviours. Further survey findings are available online at www.sparc.org.nz .

Green Prescriptions

Green Prescriptions are a GP’s or practice nurse’s written advice to a patient to be more active and are faxed (with the patient's permission) directly from medical centres to the nearest support service (either a Regional Sports Trust or Primary Health Organisation). Telephone advice and support are provided for the next three months (with a minimum of 3 contacts during that time) and face to face or group support. SPARC are the lead agency for Green Prescriptions which is part-funded by Pharmac.

Between July 2006 and June 2007 there were 20,211 direct referrals from medical centres for support (up from 16180 in 2005/6, and 14649 in 2004/5). Results from SPARC’s May 2007 Green Prescription patient survey show that the main reasons for issuing a Green Prescription were weight issues (59 percent), high blood pressure/stroke (36 percent), diabetes (25 percent) and arthritis (24%).

Seventy-four percent of respondents noticed a change in health after following a Green Prescription. The main improvements were generally feeling better (52 percent), weight loss (46 percent), feeling stronger/fitter (49 percent) and more energy (42 percent). In addition, 59 percent of respondents had made improvements to their diet, with 15 percent cutting down on fats and 21 percent eating fewer or smaller meals.

For further information view the Green Prescriptions website

The Obesity Action Coalition

The Obesity Action Coalition has been active for more than two years and has 72 member organisations. The Coalition aims to reduce the prevalence and impact of obesity in New Zealand and has been active in the media to raise awareness of obesity.

Agencies for Nutrition Action

Agencies for Nutrition Action with funding from the Ministry of Health and SPARC hosted "Call to Action - Kawea ake te wero" the inaugural public health nutrition and physical activity national conference that was held in Christchurch.  The conference was attended by 220 people from around New Zealand. 

Link to more information on the conference.
Articles on four of the presentations at the conference.

Pacific Obesity Prevention in Communities Project

Teams from The University of Auckland School of Population Health, the Fiji School of Medicine and Deakin University in Victoria, Australia are collaborating on the OPIC project. Currently, there is no evidence to support the best theoretical approach to comprehensive, community-based obesity prevention programs in young populations. The aim of the Pacific Obesity Prevention in Communities Project is to help fill this important evidence gap. It involves a series of studies in young populations in Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand and Australia.

Over a period of three to four years, these studies will look at:

• the overall impact (including cost effectiveness) of comprehensive, community-based intervention programs on overweight/obesity prevalence in young populations;

• the feasibility of the specific intervention components and their impacts on eating and physical activity patterns;

• socio-cultural factors that promote obesity and how they can be influenced;

• the effects of food-related policies and policy changes in Fiji and Tonga on the supply of foods that might influence obesity prevalence; and

• the overall burden of childhood obesity (including loss of quality of life) and how resources can be best allocated to prevent obesity.

WHO Global Strategy for Diet, Physical Activity and Health

Considerable work has been undertaken to promote and support the adoption of the WHO Global Strategy for Diet, Physical Activity and Health. Advice was prepared for New Zealand Government representatives for WHO and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation meetings and a strongly supportive country submission was prepared in February 2004. As well, New Zealand representatives played an active role in the drafting group, which ensured the adoption of the Global Strategy at the World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva in May 2004.

Review of the New Zealand Interpretation of the WHO Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes

The review of the New Zealand Interpretation of the WHO Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes has been completed. The report includes a number of actions that are likely to result in future changes to Infant Feeding Guidelines for New Zealand Health Workers (Ministry of Health 1997a) and the Code of Practice for the Marketing of Infant Formula (NZIFMA 1997).

Go to Review of the New Zealand Interpretation of the WHO Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes

Joint projects with the New Zealand Food Safety Authority

Joint projects with the New Zealand Food Safety Authority on iodine deficiency disorders and fortification of foods with folic acid have continued.

In May 2004, the Australia New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council agreed that Food Standards Australia New Zealand would consider mandatory fortification of food with iodine and folate as a matter of priority. A joint agency discussion document on mandatory and voluntary fortification of foods with folate underwent public consultation in July and August 2004 and the analysis of submissions will also provide data for Food Standards Australia New Zealand.

Page last updated: 23 July 2007