The key message of Australian Healthy Weight week? Stop focusing on weight and start focusing on health instead.
A new survey by the Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA), found nearly half (46 per cent) of the respondents had actively tried to lose weight in the past year, with many spending money on specific diets.
The statistics are a sad reminder that many of us still don't get it.
Rather than focusing on our health and how to treat our bodies better in a sustainable way, we often subscribe to the promise of a silver bullet.
"What I think is really sad is that we do see people line up year in and year out spending hundreds of dollars on weight loss programs or hundreds of dollars on special foods when really, a weekly commitment to putting more fruit and veg in your shopping trolley could be one of the key factors to initially losing weight and then keeping it off in the long-term," says Clare Collins, DAA spokesperson and a professor of nutrition and dietetics at the University of Newcastle.
As it stands, Collins says the average Australian household spends about $10 a week on fresh vegetables. It is no surprise then that only one in 20 Australians eat enough vegetables (the recommended daily intake is at least five serves a day).
"And yet we can spend hundreds on diet products or magic supplements that have been picked on some distant hill before dawn on a promise that we'll wake up and all our weight will have disappeared," Collins says.
She notes that many people buy trendy coconut oil to cook with, despite it being "around four times the price of heart-healthy olive oil" or expensive protein bars when we could just buy an apple for less than a dollar.
Understandable as it may be that we want a quick fix or fall for impressive-sounding pseudo-science or aspirational images, there is a far less costly and dramatic way to resolve the epidemic of obesity and chronic disease.
"For most Australians, the weight creeps on slowly and it creeps on slowly with those habits that have snuck in – the coffee with the donut, the takeaways on your way home because you're busy at work," Collins explains.
In fact, she adds, it is the cumulative effect of these "sneaky habits" that means, on average, more than one third of our kilojoules come from junk foods.
The positive news is that just as small changes are derailing our health, small changes can bring them back on track.
"If you look at the Australian guide to healthy eating, it says try and keep it to 10 to 15 per cent," Collins says. "For most, the most practical, logical place to start is to cut in half to a third the amount of discretionary foods we eat and drink and that is where the fruit and veg come in.
"People say 'oh, going on a diet is so expensive' – we've seen people can spend up to $200 a week and yet a healthy food basket will cost way, way less than that."
There is an additional benefit to filling the food gap with fruit and vegetables.
"When people switch to fruit and veg and healthier eating they go 'I feel like I'm eating more' and the reality is that often people are eating a bigger volume but less kilojoules," Collins says.
So although dropping weight is a healthy side effect, it is not the focus and means we're also less susceptible to unsustainable weight-loss plans.
"Yes, many people will need to lose some weight to improve their health," Collins says, "but if you focus on improving your eating habits and get some professional support you will find some things that you can live with that will predict your life-long health and wellbeing."
When a dietitian can help
Research has found that regardless of the type of eating plan we're on, we have the most success when we have support.
"When you buy a diet book or download an eating plan, there are always things on there that you go 'oh god, but I can't stand cauliflower' or 'there's no way I'm going to eat an apple every day' but there are plenty of other ways of tweaking it," Collins says. "Or you might say 'I've got coeliac disease' or 'I've got type 2 diabetes' well, what a dietitian can do is tweak any kind of diet plan that you kind of liked or liked some bits of and ensure that the substitute foods can replace those things that you really don't like – all the yucky bits – but you still get all the nutrients you need."
She adds: "The reason why really trying to get all your nutrients [is important] is that nutrients are your friends that are fighting on your behalf inside your body to make sure all of your metabolic processes are working in your favour and lowering your risk of all of those nasty things we don't like to think about until they happen – like diet-related cancers, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke. That's where the real magic happens with food – it's in the way food can fuel you initially so you feel better and long-term help you better the current epidemic of chronic disease."
For free healthy eating plans, tips and access to accredited practising dietitians, go to Australian Healthy Weight Week
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