National action is needed to help Australians eat more vegetables as we emerge from COVID.
Consumer research commissioned by the Australian Fruit and Vegetable Consortium* (FVC) found that the pandemic has had an adverse effect on eating behaviour, with nearly half the population developing less healthy food habits during lockdowns.
These habits include an increase in takeaway and home delivered meals, an increase in snacking while working from home, and emotional overeating because of stress and anxiety, which has led to 17% of Australians now eating less vegetables compared to before the pandemic.
More than 90% of Australians are not eating the recommended five serves of vegetables each day, and one in four are only eating a single serve or less.
The report, Shifting the dial on vegetable consumption: Rebuilding healthy families in a COVID-19 affected and disrupted Australia, released 4 October 2022, points out that increasing our daily consumption of vegetables would help to reduce Government health expenditure by an estimated $200 million a year.
FVC managing director Ms Justine Coates explained that more than one billion dollars of existing expenditure is already attributable to low vegetable consumption, and this figure continues to rise.
“We need a game changer to get Australians back into eating habits that will be good for their long-term health,” Ms Coates said.
“Australians know that eating an extra serve of vegetables daily is a simple way to improve their health: the consumption of an extra serve of vegetables a day would improve the physical and mental well-being of Australians, helping reduce the risk of death from all causes by 5% and deaths from heart disease and stroke by 4%.
“But the pandemic and lockdowns reinforced barriers linked to affordability, concerns over food waste and the lack of time and inspiration needed to prepare good meals.”
The report combined three streams of work – consumer surveys and community-based focus groups that identified barriers and motivators to vegetable consumption; a grower survey to test the perspective of the horticultural sector; and Expert Advisory Panel workshops to further identify solutions.
Other key findings included:
- 72 per cent of consumers say affordability is impacting their consumption of vegetables – Deakin University’s Institution for Health Transformation has reported fruit and vegetable prices have increased by 7% on average, with leafy greens increasing by up to 150% over the last 12 months.
- 41 per cent of consumers say food waste is impacting their consumption of vegetables – Australian households account for 2.46 million tonnes of food waste annually, costing each family on average $2,000 to $2,500 every year.
- 39 per cent of consumers say a lack of time and inspiration is impacting their consumption of vegetables – Australian cooking skills are declining as knowledge of how to prepare and cook vegetables in an easy, delicious and time efficient manner is being generationally lost.
Ms Coates said that despite falling consumption, most Australians understand that a nutritious diet is the easiest way to improve long-term health outcomes, with 81% of consumers agreeing that eating one more serve of vegetables a day is a simple way to improve their long-term health.
“Governments have a range of good strategies to improve preventative health, reduce obesity, lift health literacy and reduce food waste,” Ms Coates said.
“A compelling behavioural change campaign can propel progress against these good goals by presenting solutions that help consumers overcome barriers to consumption, empowering consumers with the information they need to make the right choices for themselves.”
“As well as improving health outcomes, increased vegetable consumption will have the added benefit of supporting growers, regional communities and retailers.”
The report was welcomed by Dr Linda Swan, Chief Medical Officer for Medibank – which served as the Project Partner to the report.
“Approximately $38 billion is spent each year on care for people with chronic disease and almost half of all Australian adults have preventable health conditions,” Dr Swan said.
“A key element to improving health and wellbeing is eating well, I hope the findings of this report encourage all Australians to review their diet and take nutrition seriously.”
* The FVC is a collaboration led by Nutrition Australia and AUSVEG with 10 executive members spanning leaders across the horticulture and health sectors who have joined forces to make increasing vegetable consumption a national priority for recovery from the COVID pandemic.