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Healthy eating

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Healthy eating
Healthy food connect
Wodonga - the facts
Australian dietary guidelines
Better Health Channel
Wodonga Food Security Scan
Emergency Food Relief

Healthy Eating

Good nutrition and eating a wide variety of healthy foods is a vital component of a healthy lifestyle.

Healthy eating assists to:

Promote health and wellbeing ;
Reduce the risk of diet-related conditions, such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and obesity ; and
Reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some types of cancers.

Why people make the food choices they do is complex – the commonly reported barriers to healthy eating are:

Supply –availability of healthy food where people live, learn, work and play;
Access - ability to get to and afford healthy food;
Utilisation- ability to store, prepare and cook healthy food; and
Demand- knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Healthy Food Connect

Healthy Food Connect has been developed by the Victorian Department of Health as a model to address local food system change. Using this model, Healthy Together Wodonga is working with local community groups and networks to develop a strategies, activities and policy changes that ensure ‘healthy choices are the easy choices’ in our local communities.

Wodonga - the facts

59.5 per cent of Wodonga residents are overweight and obese - significantly above the Victorian average of 49.8 per cent
Specifically:
- 50.1 per cent males overweight (not including obese)
- 18.3 per cent males obese
- 27.8 per cent females overweight (not including obese)
- 23.3 per cent females obese - significantly above the Vic state average of 17.2 per cent
14 per cent of Wodonga residents comply with recommended daily servings of vegetables - above the 7.2 per cent Victorian average.
40.9 per cent comply with recommended daily servings of fruit, for example, two serves per adult per day – lower than the 45.3 per cent Victorian average
Source: Victorian Population Health Survey 2011-12, selected preliminary survey findings.
Type 2 diabetes is Wodonga’s disease of highest prevalence, with nearly three times the state rate of presentation
The high prevalence of diabetes is linked to the high obesity rate.

Source: COW Social Profile - Preliminary version 2013

For more facts about Wodonga, have a look at the Food Access Summary document.

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Australian Dietary Guidelines

The eatforhealth website provides advice about the amount and kinds of foods that we need to eat for health and wellbeing.

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Better Health Channel

The Better Health Chanel (BHC) provides health and medical information that is quality assured, reliable, up-to-date, easy to understand, regularly reviewed and locally relevant.

To find out more, visit the better health website.

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Wodonga Food Security Scan 2014

“Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
(Food and Agriculture Organization, World Summit on Food Security 2009)

Food security is an important issue for all Australians to consider. To better understand the local food security issues for the Wodonga community Healthy Together Wodonga has undertaken a food security scan.

To do this, Healthy Together Wodonga formed a project reference group and appointed a project officer. Over fifty stakeholders were consulted and around fifty reports reviewed to identify the issues and present recommendations to address these issues.

The issues highlighted by Wodonga’s Food Security Scan fell into five themes; health and wellbeing, local food economy, physical access, economic access and COW’s policy environment. Healthy Together Wodonga will now work with local networks and organisations to implement strategies to address these issues.

The full report can be accessed here.

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Emergency Food Relief

Emergency food relief helps people who are experiencing ongoing financial disadvantage or a ‘one- off’ financial crisis.

Department of Health Population Health data tells us that in Wodonga:

13.6 per cent of the population in Wodonga experience financial stress
6.4 per cent report running out of food and not being able afford to buy more – cost of food was reported as the main reason for this.

In the Albury-Wodonga region there are numerous organisations that provide emergency food relief – for all full list click here.

Healthy Together Wodonga is working in partnership with community organisations to implement strategies that address economic access to healthy foods. The priorities for this work are identified in the Wodonga Food Security Scan 2014.

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