Introduction
Eating a healthy diet all through life helps stop malnutrition in different forms and also lowers the risk of many serious health problems like heart disease, diabetes and cancer. But as more processed foods are made, cities grow faster and people’s ways of living change, diets are starting to change too. Now, people are eating more foods that have a lot of calories, fat, sugar and salt, while not eating enough fruits, vegetables and other foods rich in fibre like whole grains.
The exact mix of foods that make a healthy, balanced diet will depend on things like a person’s age, gender, how active they are, their lifestyle, their culture, what foods are available locally and their eating traditions.
But the main ideas of what makes a healthy diet are the same for everyone.
How to promote healthy diets
Over time, the way people eat changes because of many social and economic factors that work together in a complicated way to influence what people eat. These factors include money, how much food costs (which affects whether healthy foods are available and affordable), personal likes and beliefs, cultural traditions, and the environment, including changes in the climate. Because of this, creating a healthy food environment — which includes food systems that support a varied, balanced, and healthy diet — needs the help of many groups and sectors, including the government and both public and private organizations. The government plays a key role in making it easier for people to eat healthily. Good decisions by leaders to support a healthy food environment include the following:
Making sure national policies and plans, including those related to trade, food, and agriculture, are consistent and support healthy eating and protect people’s health by:
- Giving more support to producers and sellers to grow, use, and sell fresh fruits and vegetables;
- Reducing support for the food industry to make more processed foods that have high levels of unhealthy fats, trans-fats, sugar, and salt;
- Encouraging food companies to improve the nutrition of their products by lowering unhealthy fats, trans-fats, sugar, and salt, with the aim of completely removing industrially made trans-fats; – Following World Health Organization recommendations on how food and drinks are advertised to children;
- Setting rules to help people eat better by making sure healthy, nutritious, safe, and affordable food is available in places like preschools, schools, public buildings, and workplaces;
- Looking into both rules and voluntary actions, like advertising rules and food labels, as well as financial tools like taxes and subsidies, to help support healthy eating; and
- Encouraging food services and restaurants to improve the healthiness of their food by making sure healthy options are available and affordable, and by checking portion sizes and prices.
Helping people want to choose healthier foods and meals by:
- Teaching people about the benefits of eating healthily;
- Creating school rules and programs that help children learn and keep healthy eating habits;
- Teaching children, teenagers, and adults about good nutrition and healthy eating;
- Encouraging cooking skills, especially in children through schools;
- Supporting information at the point of sale, including clear and easy-to-read food labels that follow international guidelines, with labels on the front of packages to make it easier for people to understand; and
- Offering nutrition and diet advice at primary healthcare centers.
Supporting the right ways to feed babies and young children by:
- Following the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and other World Health Assembly decisions;
- Making sure that working mothers are protected and supported; and
- Promoting, protecting, and helping mothers to breastfeed in healthcare settings and the community, including through the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative.
