Making healthier choices is about to get easier

Posted on 24 September, 2018

Even when we try and make positive choices, we can sometimes find 
ourselves limited by what’s on offer.

Whether we’re at the movies, out for dinner or at a kids’ play date, sometimes we’re confined by the available food options and it can be tough to make healthier choices.

But with the introduction of Healthier Choices Canberra, many local businesses are actively working to make their healthier offerings more readily identifiable and accessible to their customers.

An initiative of the ACT Government, with the support of Canberra Business Chamber and the ACT Nutrition Support Service, Healthier Choices Canberra provides support and nutritionist advice for cafes, club restaurants, kids’ entertainment centres, junior sports and local supermarkets to offer a broad range of healthier options. You can easily find healthier options on kids’ menus where there’s an ‘HC’ icon, or by looking for the green Healthier Choices Canberra shelf tickets in supermarkets.

Helping families to eat well while they’re out and about is the core of the initiative. Family life these days is busy and often we’re rushing from one place to the next. But having fun with the kids and having some down time is important too. If it’s too cold or too hot outside, which let’s face it – Canberra weather often is, escaping to a kids’ entertainment centre is an easy choice. Not only does it get you out of the house, but it gets the kids running around burning off all that pent-up energy! Win-win! But with lots of sugary foods and drinks typically on offer, most of us have experienced the nasty sugar crash right as we have to leave, particularly after a kid’s birthday party.

Kate Freeman

Kate Freeman, Registered Nutritionist and Managing Director of The Healthy Eating Hub (and mum of two), says she struggles to find healthier choices for her two children when they’re out and about.

“If my kids are at a kids’ entertainment centre and they can see what’s available and they can make the choice between fruit or hot chips, they will choose hot chips. However, I encourage healthy choices by following a simple rule—the parent chooses the food and it’s the kids who choose whether or not they eat it.

“It’s great to be given the option of healthier choices. It means that as parents we aren’t trapped into buying the hot chips,” she explains.

Kate says for her, Healthier Choices Canberra is also about removing the confusion around healthier choices.

“I think at times many parents feel overwhelmed with making healthier choices for their kids. It’s confusing knowing what to choose, with lots of conflicting information, and parents don’t always know what sources of information they can trust.

“If local businesses can commit to create healthier, delicious food, the market will respond with buying these foods. And I know I can trust Healthier Choices Canberra because it’s backed by expert nutritionists,” she explains.

Across town, Manager of Limelight Cinemas Michael Singh says that while cinemagoers do head to Limelight for “an indulgent experience”, they’ve found a way to make that indulgence a little healthier.

“The way that society is going at the moment is that everyone is a bit more health-conscious. There’s more awareness around what people are eating and drinking,” he explains.

“We wanted to make a conscious effort to have options available for people to have a healthier choice—from kids right through to seniors—and that they know it’s part of Healthier Choices Canberra.”

Michael and his team have implemented this through introducing a lower kilojoule choc top alternative—Twisted Yoghurt—and some sizing changes.

“We’ve had Twisted Yoghurt for close to two years now—it’s 99% fat free and it’s made from all-natural ingredients. We’ve sold this in a package with a water and it’s been very popular.”

Michael explains that since Twisted Yoghurt is also in school canteens, kids have a positive association with the product and, as a result, will often choose it over a choc top. Michael also acknowledges that cinemas have a bad reputation for super sizing products such as popcorn and drinks, something Limelight is trying to change.

“We’ve made an effort to reduce the portion sizes and price point,” he explains. “This ultimately has assisted with people being a little more health conscious and aware.”

Ali McGregor (pictured above), the Manager of Let’s Play in Nicholls, says as our society moves towards a healthier future, providers have a responsibility to keep the health of their customers in mind.

“Giving people an option outside of home to make a healthier choice is the right thing to do,” she says.

“When you are able to offer healthier options at the same pricing you make it a viable option for them.”

Let’s Play is an indoor play centre where supervision by parents and carers is key, and Ali says their café’s goal is to provide healthier in-house options for both kids and adults, as well as making sure that people know the options are there.

“One of the major things we’ve done is implement some healthier options in one of our party packages,” she explains.

“We actually already had a variety of healthier options on the menu, so it was about making them more prominent by highlighting them using the Healthier Choices Canberra logo.”

This will mean patrons’ eyes will be drawn to items that come with a side salad, as well as leaner options like salads, a steak sandwich or quesadillas.

The same rings true for Questacon’s café Mega Bites. Manager Ashley Morrisey explains that, because of the temptation to start or end a big day at Questacon with a snack or meal, they want to give guests the best options possible.

Given Questacon’s young demographic, Ashley explains that making healthier choices obvious to the customer is a priority.

“We currently have a sandwich fridge which has wraps, fruit, sandwiches and children’s snack packs, which is the area for healthier options,” she says, adding that they worked with the Healthier Choices Canberra Nutritionist to swap their burgers out for a lighter patty.

Ashley adds that the high volume of tourists they host at the café is a big motivation for adding healthier options.

“Sometimes you need something healthier to break up your days when you’re on holidays,” she says. “It’s great when visitors don’t have to bring their own food.”

So next time you’re visiting any of these businesses, don’t forget to look out for the ‘HC’ icon on the kids menus, taking the guesswork out of finding healthier choices.

To find out more about Healthier Choices Canberra, head to www.act.gov.au/healthierchoices.

Feature image: Tim Bean Photography

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