New figures show 94 per cent of Australians aren’t getting their recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables
Australian Bureau of Statistics data states that only 6.1 per cent of adults and 8.5 per cent of children are meeting the recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables.
Dietitians Australia says the figures show “nutrition is a huge issue in this country”
DA chief executive Robert Hunt said: “We need a coordinated approach, that joins the dots back to nutrition across a range of projects and one that is backed by serious dollars.”
“In the face of the current fresh food price and supply crisis, these numbers are only likely to worsen,” he added.
“While fresh food was challenging to source during COVID panic buying outbreaks, it was far more affordable than it is now.”
“We can only imagine how damning the dietary behaviour data would be if it was sourced in the last few weeks, where most people can barely contemplate forking out $10 or more for a fresh produce staple like lettuce.
Mr Hunt said that if Australians keep eating the same levels of bad food that the nation is on track to foot an $80bn+ bill to deal with obesity-related health costs.
“The Morrison Government had committed to $700k to develop the framework for a National Nutrition Policy. We want the Albanese Government to dig deeper on this for us and commit to full funding and resourcing to action it,” he said.
“One of the recommended actions in the strategy is funding the development and publication of wide-scale education campaigns to improve nutrition uptake in this country.
“We’ve proven we can turn around public health education campaigns quickly in this country, with most of us understanding the concepts of masks and social distancing.”
