Volume 200 - Issue 2
Nutrition in schools — outdated guidelines need updating
Author: Kieron B Rooney
Med J Aust 2014; 200 (2): 78. || doi: 10.5694/mja13.10960
Published online: 3 February 2014
Published online: 3 February 2014
Current guidelines disregard sugar content when assessing foods for inclusion in school canteens
To the Editor: The National Healthy School Canteens (NHSC) project commenced in 2008 to help provide guidelines for healthier food and drink choices in Australian schools. At their core, the guidelines seek to restrict the availability of poor food choices by encouraging the preferential availability of healthy options. These guidelines should ensure the translation of health research and national health curriculum into practice. However, the current NHSC guidelines are inadequate and fall short of their aims as they rate foods only on energy, fat and sodium, and disregard the sugar content of commercially available foods.
The initial decision to disregard sugar as a criterion for rating foods available in school canteens was intentional. The New South Wales government website states that sugar content was not included “To keep the criteria as simple as possible and to ensure that foods containing naturally occurring sugars . . . were not disadvantaged”.1 Surprisingly, sugar content is not even a criterion for assessing “sugar-sweetened drinks”.2
Excess sugar consumption is associated with type 2 diabetes and obesity. This has been reported in both human and non-human studies and is evidenced by outcomes including fatty liver, impaired glucose tolerance and increased site-specific adiposity. It is of little surprise then, that the most recent update to the Australian dietary guidelines in February of this year included a revision of the recommendation about foods and drinks containing added sugars (Guideline 3).3
Before February 2013, national dietary advice was to consume only moderate amounts of food and drinks with added sugar. This has since been revised to advise their intake be limited. This shifts foods and drinks containing added sugar into the same category as foods high in fat, salt or alcohol. There is now an immediate need to review policies borne from the outdated national guidelines (such as the NHSC) to include “added sugar” as criteria for assessing the suitability of foods, just as fat and sodium currently are. Until then, the healthy development of our children and hence future health of our nation is at risk.
Competing interests
No relevant disclosures.
References
- NSW Government Health. Frequently asked questions. http://www0.health.nsw.gov.au/publichealth/healthpromotion/obesity/canteen_faqs.asp#para_13 (accessed Jul 2013).
- NSW Government, Department of Education and Communities. Sugar sweetened drink ban for NSW Government schools. Implementation document summary. https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/policies/student_serv/student_health/nutrition/implementation_3_PD20110420.shtml (accessed Jul 2013).
- National Health and Medical Research Council. Australian dietary guidelines (2013). http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines/publications/n55 (accessed Jul 2013).