Nutrition and Public Health

Nutrition and Public Health

Good nutrition is a vital component of healthy lifestyles, and contributes to the overall health and wellbeing of the community. Along with physical activity, healthy eating plays a key role in preventing disease and is fundamental to better public health.

The Victorian Government is working to influence settings such as workplaces, public facilities, childcare centres, schools and community-based approaches to address nutrition-related issues, including:

• fruit, vegetable, salt and fat intake
• breastfeeding
• food security
• Indigenous nutrition
• overweight and obesity.

In line with the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2011–2015 the Victorian Government has implemented a range of measures to promote the importance healthy eating in the prevention of chronic diseases. Key initiatives include:

• Healthy choices: food and drink guidelines for Victorian public hospitals
  Provides a voluntary framework for improving the availability and promotion of healthier food and drink options for purchase on hospital premises.
• The Healthy Eating Advisory Service
  Provides healthy eating and nutrition advice to early childhood services, primary and secondary schools, hospitals and a number of workplaces.
• The Better Health Channel - Food and Nutrition
  Provides current, quality assured and reliable information on healthy eating to help individuals and their communities improve their health and wellbeing.

The government also supports research and evaluation in the area of nutrition, to ensure that policies and programs meet the needs of Victorians and are effective. Examples of this include:

The Filling the gaps: early childhood nutrition and physical activity needs assessment 2010
This needs assessment was conducted by The Royal Children's Hospital, as part of the Filling the Gaps project for the Department of Health of the State Government of Victoria. The aim of this research was to identify nutrition and physical activity practices and needs of children aged 0–8 years, including issues and needs of practitioners working with this group, in two Victorian high-needs rural and metropolitan local government areas.

A summary report of the Filling the Gaps: early childhood nutrition and physical activity needs 2010, is available for download:

 Filling the Gaps Early childhood nutrition and physical activity needs assessment 2010: Summary report

Download documents

The following documents were last updated in 2007 - (former Department of Human Services).

 Good food for all - A guide for residents and staff of shared homes for people with a disability.

 Good food for all workbook - A guide to learning about nutrition for people with a disability.

 Strong bones - Dairy activity book - Suggested activities for health professionals, carers and workers who support people with a disability, teaching people how to increase the amount of calcium in the diet.

 Strong bones - Physical activity book - Suggested activities for health professionals, carers and workers who support people with a disability, teaching people how to increase the amount of physical activity they do each day.

 Tube feeding: a guide for direct support workers - People with a disability may require enteral or tube feeding to maintain nutrition and health. This information book has been written to provide direct support workers with a resource that they can use together with the information provided by the hospital that the person attends for their tube feeding.

Further information

For further information contact: nutrition@health.vic.gov.au