Brazil creates epic guidelines for healthy eating

In Australia, despite the obesity epidemic our Government can't even agree on simple rules for food labels because powerful food industry groups seem to control the rules. 

The food industry does things like donating large sums of money to political parties to ensure they get a seat at the table when our healthy eating guidelines are drawn up. Did you know the food & beverage industry donates about the same amount of money as the mining industry?

The Fast Food industry was locked out.

Recently I became very interested in eating guidelines out of Brazil - you can view a full summary of the ten guidelines here, but what really spiked my interest was that these guidelines were designed by food, nutrition & health experts whilst the food industry (and commercial interests) were deliberately locked out of the room.

This is big news, and I've never heard of it happening anywhere else in the world. The guidelines contained the usual great advice to eat fresh foods, reduce fats, salt and sugars... 

But what I was really impressed with was a number of eating guidelines we have never seen before from a government body, several of them aimed at the social and emotional aspect of eating. Two great examples included:

#5 - Eat in company whenever possible.
#6 - Develop, practice, share & enjoy your skills in food preparation and cooking.

Do you enjoy preparing food?

It's really interesting to see people being encouraged to enjoy the process of cooking and sharing real food, instead of being told simply what to eat (or what not to eat). 

I think these guidelines might help people eat less fast food on the fly, less rushed eating, less gulping of soda, and more planning of healthy foods. All of these things are likely to reduce consumption of empty calories and promote healthier, happier eating.

Of course, commercial interests (like the fast food lobby) do not want you to stay at home and enjoy preparing fresh whole foods with your loved ones... They want you in the drive-through ordering a burger with large fries & a massive Coca Cola to wash it all down.

Another two eating guidelines from Brazil that I have never seen before:
#9 - Avoid fast food chains.
#10 - Be critical of the commercial advertisement of food products.

Probably two of the best eating guidelines I've ever seen, but sadly we will never see guidelines like this in Australia as long as the food industry gets a seat at the table when guidelines like these are designed. 

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Image acknowledgements from Flickr Creative Commons: 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/snekse/2501155494 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/esotericsean/2186109381