A healthy childhood’s foundational to a healthy future
Children need good nutrition for healthy growth and development. But over a third of Aussie kids’ daily energy intake is currently coming from unhealthy food and drinks, while only 8.5% are eating the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables.
Unhealthy food and drink advertising is adding fuel to the fire, influencing what our kids eat, want to eat and ask for – and it’s putting their future health at stake.
What do we mean by unhealthy food and drinks?
When we talk about unhealthy foods and drinks, we mean items high in energy, fat, salt and sugar.
This includes fast foods, burgers, confectionery, sugary drinks, chocolate, pies, biscuits and cakes. These are energy-dense, nutrient poor (discretionary) foods that are not recommended under the Australian Dietary Guidelines.
Unhealthy diets can lead to preventable cancers
A diet that’s high in unhealthy foods, which are often energy dense but nutrient poor, can increase the risk of being above a healthy weight.i Being above a healthy weight in childhood increases the likelihood of being above a healthy weight in adulthood, which in turn increases the risk of at least 13 different types of cancer. It’s also linked to other serious health issues, like type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
Nearly 5,300 cancer cases in Australian adults are caused by being above a healthy weight each year – and they are mostly preventable.
Between 2016-18, $129.5 million was spent on sugary drink ads from 2016-18 in Australia — around 5 times more than government spending on public health campaigns.
