Health Promotion for Healthy Food and Drink Choices Assignment Sample

• Subject Name : Nursing

Assistive Technologies for The Blind

Introduction to Health Promotion for Healthy Food and Drink Choices

The healthy choices of the food can impact the health of an individual such as if choices for unhealthy junk food aremore, then the individual might suffer from various health complications. Issues such as obesity, cardiovascular health problems, diabetes, and overweight are more common in an individual due to poor and unhealthy food choices (Mete, Curlewis & Shield et al., 2019). Therefore, to ensure that the people are well informed about the importance of healthy food choices a promotion is required. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2020), it is found that an Australian spend $63 every week for the food that is prepared outside the house (processed food); $32 are spend every week for the alcoholic drinks; 30 % of the household expenditure is observed at fast foods; 13 % at fruits and vegetables; 6 % at dairy products; less than 4 % for eggs and egg products; 25 % of the adults and 6 % of the children are obese; 25 % of the adults and 17 % of the children are overweight; the media shows more advertisement for the fast and junk food, therefore the choices of the population are more towards the unhealthy choices. Moreover, due to poor socio-economic status the population is not well aware of the importance of a healthy diet and healthy lifestyle as a result 30 % of the children in Australia are smoking; more than 85 % do not intake fruits; people at the age of 15, 18 or above face serious health complications such as cancer or diabetes. Therefore, it is a serious issue for public health that can be resolved with the help of public health care principles of health promotion, public participation, accessibility, and use of appropriate technology(Wingert& Hale, 2020). The following sections will discuss the possible solutions and proposed solutions with counter-evidences against the solution.

Possible Solutions

The issues of unhealthy food and drink choices among the population can be resolved with the help of various efforts. The government should make policies with the help of health organizations and policy-makers to promote public health, policies for the promotion of agricultural products, and collaborative trade. According to Molenaar, Choi & Brennan et al. (2020), child follow the choices of the elders therefore, to improve healthy food and drink choices of the children, they should be involved in the planning the food shopping lists; they should be taken out for grocery shopping; they should be asked to participate in healthy cooking and buy food of healthy brands; encourage the population for whole-grain and low-fat diets; no skipping of the meals and reduced intake of sweet food items. Such actions will ensure health promotion and active participation. This article discussed child health promotion and ways to encourage children to healthy food choices, and this was the strength of this article; but it did not discuss the other age groups. The other age groups were not focused in this article and the children that were focused in this article were not asked for their choices and they were also not told about the importance and outcomes of healthy food and drink choices; these were the limitations of the article. Moreover, there should be an organization of health promotion programs for the rural and remote areas so that the population gets information about the benefits of a healthy diet and the disadvantages of smoking, alcohol, and other unhealthy food choices. According to Cleland, Byrne &Vidgen et al. (2018), a healthy environment should be created by the governmental and non-governmental organizations for the rural and remoteness people so that they can get access to the supermarkets or buy healthy food products. This is because their remoteness restricts them from getting services. This will ensure accessibility and this principle was the strength of these articlesbut the limitation was the rural people are less educated so this article did not mention that whether these less-educated individuals were informed about the offers or services provided by the supermarkets or not. This is because, without trust, the remote individuals will never change their choices unless they are informed about the benefits or offers to improve their health without impacting their socio-economic status.

Proposed Solution and Supporting Evidence

The proposed solution is public programs and workshops. In these programs, people should be encouraged to more intake of fruits, vegetables, 3 times proper meals, less processed foods, and daily physical activities. They should be educated about the facts such as high fat intake can lead to cardiovascular issues, alcohol intake can lead to liver problems but a healthy diet will ensure a healthy body with the advantages of healthy aging in old age. The use of media for the workshop and program promotion can help in spreading the message of healthy food choice, with ease to large masses. Postures and brochures should be used in attractive and simple languages so that people of different age groups can understand the message (Appleton, 2016). The workshops should be organized in the school, institutes, or offices in both urban and rural areas to cover as many individuals of different communities as possible. Such efforts will ensure the primary health care principle of participation and use of appropriate technology to promote and encourage healthy food and drink choices messages. Media creates a great impact on the mind and choices of the children and adults so the involvement of media will help in achieving the positive outcomes (Ronto, Ball &Pendergast et al., 2016). The principle of primary health care for health promotion can be achieved with the help of educating the people about the various components of a healthy diet and personal hygiene. During programs that individuals should be asked about their knowledge of the diet and healthy food choices and evaluation should be performed frequently. The use of e-platforms for programs will help in increasing the accessibility for rural and aged individuals who cannot travel long distances to participate in programs (Williams, Vandelanotte& Irwin et al., 2018). People should be made aware of the complications associated with junk food such as obesity, diabetes, and others; they should be encouraged to eat milk, greenleafy vegetables, juices, 8 glasses of water a day (vichealth, 2016). They should be informed in the workshops that a healthy diet maintained their body mass index, waist size, and health.

Counter-Evidence

Health promotion with primary health care principles aims at increased accessibility. However, these are few issues that may act as barriers to the solutions for the issue such as health promotion with postures and brochures may be a limitation in the case of deaf and blind individuals. Such deaf and blind individuals face limitations in gaining education or training during the programs. Such individuals find difficulty communicating with the professionals, accessing the information, and use of deaf language. There is the use of American Sign Language at the e-platforms for communicating with the professionals (Ryan &Kushalnagar, 2018; Carvalho, Melo& Aquino et al., 2017). However, the limitation is the rural and remote areas people are less-educated so they might not know the sign language as well. These strategies help in essay interaction with disabled individuals. If the target audience is not informed about food literacy then the choices for food or drinks might get impacted negatively. Food literacy is also important in health promotion and poor socio-economic status is associated with poor food literacy (Jamieson, Smithers& Hedges et al., 2018; Wijayaratne, Reid &Westberg et al., 2018). However, if the workshops or programs are organized to ensure knowledge sharing with the disables people with the use of sign language then the issues can be resolved. With the help of the use of different languages then thelanguage barrier issues can be resolved.

Conclusion on Health Promotion for Healthy Food and Drink Choices

It is concluded that if the choice of food and drinks is unhealthy then the chances of diabetes and cardiovascular issues increase. Many people of different age groups face these health complications due to poor food choices. However, with the help of solutions such as the conduction of promotion programs, workshops, use of posters, brochures, and media platforms can help in increasing the accessibility and participation of the individual of the rural and remote areas as well. There should be efforts from the government and non-government organizations to achieve the aim by encouraging agricultural products and implementing policies with the help of policy-makers. Moreover, family members can also help in encouraging healthy food and drink choices. There should be the use of different languages so that language does not act as a barrier in spreading information about food literacy because food literacy can help in making the consumer aware of the benefits of healthy choices and the harmful health impacts of unhealthy choices. The use of sign language for dumb individuals can help to a great extent in imparting food literacy.

References for Health Promotion for Healthy Food and Drink Choices

Appleton, K. M. (2016). Greater fruit selection following an appearance-based compared with a health-based health promotion poster. Journal of Public Health, 38(4), 731-738.DOI:10.1093/pubmed/fdv147

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2020). Australia's food and nutrition 2012: In brief. Retrieved from:https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/food-nutrition/australia-s-food-and-nutrition-2012-in-brief/contents/in-brief

Carvalho, L. V. D., Melo, G. M. D., Aquino, P. D. S., Castro, R. C. M. B., Cardoso, M. V. L. M. L., &Pagliuca, L. M. F. (2017). Assistive technologies for the blind: Key competences for health promotion under the Galway Consensus. Retrieved from: http://www.repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/23857

Cleland, P., Byrne, R., Vidgen, H., Irvine, S., Farrell, A., & Gallegos, D. (2018). Advancing Australia's agenda for young children's health and wellbeing: Empirical insights into educator knowledge, confidence and intentions in promoting children's Learning, Eating, active play and sleep (LEAPS). Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 43(2), 55-63.DOI: 10.23965/AJEC.43.2.06

Jamieson, L., Smithers, L., Hedges, J., Parker, E., Mills, H., Kapellas, K., &Ju, X. (2018). Dental disease outcomes following a 2-year oral health promotion program for Australian Aboriginal children and their families: A 2-arm parallel, single-blind, randomised controlled trial. ClinicalMedicine, 1, 43-50.DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2018.05.001

Mete, R., Curlewis, J., Shield, A., Murray, K., Bacon, R., &Kellett, J. (2019). Reframing healthy food choices: A content analysis of Australian healthy eating blogs. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1711.DOI:10.1186/s12889-019-8064-7

Molenaar, A., Choi, T. S., Brennan, L., Reid, M., Lim, M. S., Truby, H., & McCaffrey, T. A. (2020). Language of health of young Australian adults: A qualitative exploration of perceptions of health, wellbeing and health promotion via online conversations. Nutrients, 12(4), 887. DOI:10.3390/nu12040887

Ronto, R., Ball, L., Pendergast, D., & Harris, N. D. (2016).Food literacy at secondary schools in Australia. Journal of School Health, 86(11), 823-831.DOI:10.1111/josh.12440

Ryan, C., &Kushalnagar, P. (2018). Towards health equity: Deaf adults’ engagement in social e-health activities and e-communication with health care providers. Journal of Health Communication, 23(9), 836-841.DOI:10.1080/10810730.2018.1527875

vichealth. (2016). Obesity and healthy eating in Australia. Retrieved from:https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/-/media/ResourceCentre/PublicationsandResources/healthy-eating/Obesity-and-healthy-eating-in-Australia-summary.pdf?la=en&hash=D09D216292443BEE9FF6C16693488657A6CC64F7

Wijayaratne, S. P., Reid, M., Westberg, K., Worsley, A., &Mavondo, F. (2018).Food literacy, healthy eating barriers and household diet. European Journal of Marketing. Retrieved from:https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EJM-10-2017-0760/full/html

Williams, S. L., Vandelanotte, C., Irwin, C., Bellissimo, N., Heidke, P., Saluja, S., &Khalesi, S. (2020). Association between dietary patterns and sociodemographics: A cross‐sectional study of Australian nursing students. Nursing & Health Sciences, 22(1), 38-48.DOI:10.1111/nhs.12643

Wingert, J. R., & Hale, R. E. (2020).Teaching Evolutionary Principles in Health Promotion: A Pilot Study. Pedagogy in Health Promotion, 2373379920908611.DOI:10.1177%2F2373379920908611

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