How to promote healthy eating?

 Diet changes over time, influenced by many social and economic factors and their complex interactions to shape individual eating patterns. These factors include income, food prices (which affect food availability and affordability), individual preferences and beliefs, cultural traditions, and geographic and environmental considerations (including climate change). Therefore, building a healthy food environment – including food systems that promote a varied, balanced and healthy diet – requires the involvement of multiple sectors and stakeholders, including governments and the public and private sectors.

 

Governments play a major role in creating healthy food environments that enable people to adopt and maintain healthy eating practices. Effective actions by policy makers to create a healthy food environment include the following:

 

Ensure coherence in national policies and investment plans, including in the areas of trade, food processing and agriculture, to promote healthy diets and protect public health through the following measures:

 

increased incentives for producers and retailers to grow, use and sell fresh fruits and vegetables;

 

encouraging food reformulation to reduce saturated fat, trans fat, free sugars and salt/sodium to eliminate industrial trans fats from food products;

 

implementation of WHO recommendations on marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverages to children;

setting standards that promote healthy eating practices by ensuring the availability of healthy, nutritious, safe and affordable food in preschools, schools, other public institutions and workplaces;

 

examining regulatory and voluntary instruments (eg marketing regulations and food labeling policies) as well as economic incentives or disincentives (eg taxation and subsidies) to promote healthy diets; And

Encouraging multinational, national and local services and food service businesses to improve the nutritional quality of their products—ensure healthy food options are available and affordable—and review portion sizes and prices.

 

 

Stimulating consumer demand for healthy food and meals through the following measures

 

increasing consumer awareness of healthy eating;

development of school strategies and programs aimed at the adoption and maintenance of healthy eating practices among children;

educating children, adolescents and adults about healthy eating practices;

assistance in the development of culinary skills, including in children in the framework of school education;

support for the provision of information at the point of sale, including through labeling that provides accurate, standardized and comprehensive information on the nutritional content of foods (in line with Codex Alimentarius Commission guidelines) and additional front-of-pack labeling to make it easier for consumers to understand this information; And

nutrition counseling at the primary health care level.

 

 

Promoting good infant and young child feeding practices through:

implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and subsequent relevant World Health Assembly resolutions;

implementing strategies and practices to enhance the protection of working mothers; And

promoting, advocating and supporting breastfeeding in health services and communities, including through the Breastfeeding Friendly Hospitals Initiative.

 

WHO activities

 

In 2004, the Health Assembly adopted the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health (14). The strategy called on governments, WHO, international partners, the private sector and civil society to take action at the global, regional and local levels to promote healthy diets and physical activity.

 

In 2010, the Health Assembly approved a set of recommendations on the marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverages to children (15). With these recommendations, countries are developing new and improving existing strategies to reduce the impact of unhealthy food marketing on children. WHO has also developed regional tools (such as Regional Model Nutrient Lists) that countries can use to implement marketing recommendations.

 

In 2012, the Health Assembly adopted the "Comprehensive Implementation Plan for Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition" and six global nutrition goals to be achieved by 2025, including reducing the number of stunted children, wasting and overweight, improving breastfeeding and reducing the number of anemic and low birth weight babies (9).

 

In 2013, the Health Assembly agreed on nine global voluntary targets for the prevention and control of NCDs. These goals include halting the rise in diabetes and obesity and a 30% relative reduction in salt intake by 2025. "Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases 2013-2020" (10) provides guidance and policy options to help Member States, WHO and other United Nations agencies achieve these goals.

 

In May 2014, in response to the rapid increase in the number of obese infants and other age groups in many countries, WHO established the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity. In 2016, the Commission proposed a set of recommendations for successfully combating childhood and adolescent obesity in settings around the world (16).   

 

In November 2014, WHO, together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), organized the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2). ICN2 has adopted the Rome Declaration on Nutrition (17) and the Framework for Action (18), which recommend a range of policy options and strategies to promote a varied, safe and healthy diet throughout the life-course. WHO assists countries in fulfilling the commitments made at ICN2.    

 

In May 2018, the Health Assembly adopted the Thirteenth General Program of Work (GPW13), which will guide WHO's work in 2019–2023. (19). Reducing salt/sodium intake and eliminating manufactured trans fats from foods are identified in GPW13 as WHO's priority actions to achieve the goals of healthy lifestyles and promoting well-being for all at all ages. To assist Member States in taking the necessary steps to eliminate industrial trans fats from food, WHO has developed a country road map (REPLACE package) to accelerate action (6).