Health Coalition Aotearoa 2022 Conference
Health: Taking in the wider picture by Peter Barclay
F
rom the perspective of the whole food plant-based community, the wider picture of health is clear and simple. Don’t eat animal products, remove sugar, oil and salt from your diet wherever possible and stay away from ultraprocessed foods, sugary drinks, tobacco and alcohol. Oh, and don't eat dairy or fish. Now, does that sound like an easy road to good health? Well, from the perspective of the super-convinced that summation might mean a collective thumbs up, but for the wider community, the answer is nowhere near that simple. The problem, of course, is that so many actors are involved. And, more than anything, when we talk about achieving good health at a personal level, it always involves some seriously disruptive thinking. On a bigger scale, it's even more awkward because so many organisations have a lot of 'skin+ in the game'. Some have vested commercial interests, but others take such a diverse stand on what good health means that even a simple approach becomes crazily__+++ complicated. You might think that ‘the evidence’ would sort this out but, take a subject like fluoridated water for example. Here the health debate is still strongly divided, and dare we attempt to discuss the vexed question of vaccination or the value (or otherwise) of wearing a mask? These might be 'extreme' examples but if you ponder on the subject a bit, it’s easy to see why so many of us come up with such sage remarks when it comes to health, like; ‘health, oh it’s such a broad picture’ and “I know one thing; it’s not a one size fits all” or ‘a vegan diet? But that’s so restrictive.’ If this train of thinking has begun to paint a picture, you might now be in the right frame to consider what was presented at the August conference of Health Coalition Aotearoa. The HCA is an amalgam of over 60 organisations interested in health. It is led by the renowned Professor Boyd Swinburn, head of Population Nutrition and Global Health in the School of Population Health, University of Auckland.
Health coalition membership
Evidence Based Eating New Zealand, of which I am an executive member, is one of them. Others include Doctors for Nutrition, the NZ Heart Foundation, He Waka Tapu, Dieticians NZ, ASH, Alcohol Healthwatch, Auckland Women’s Health Watch, Healthy Auckland Together, Child Poverty Action Group, PSA, Save the Children, Stroke Foundation, Garden to Table, Alcohol Action NZ, Consumer, Kidney Health New Zealand, to name but a few, along with a further 56 individually listed academics. In various ways, all of these organisations exert pressure on the Government and the Department of Health to improve health outcomes for all New Zealanders. The conference was notable by the fact that speakers ranged from Andrew Little, the Minister of Health, to Dr Ayesha Verrall,
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Boyd Swinburn
Diana Sarfati
Andrew Old
Associate Minister of Health, and the most senior executive members of New Zealand’s newly rearranged health system. It was pretty much ignored by the news media, and for average Joe's like me, it was quite a mind grind. The challenge lies in understanding how all these various organisations and academics can ever channel a clear message to Government that will result in workable solutions on the ground.
First public address Dr Diana Sarfati, in her first public address as the new Director General of Health, offered some interesting thoughts.. “I have a particular interest in cancer prevention; that’s where I’ve come from most recently. One of the first things I did as Chief Executive of Te Aho o Te Kahu was to develop and organise a Cancer Prevention Report,” she said. “The purpose of that report was to state the importance of prevention in terms of cancer, to look at where we are at in terms of prevention and, most importantly, to look at policy options that government might like to consider in strengthening that preventive action. “That’s important because just in the cancer space, and of course, that’s only one part of the much more complex puzzle because, hypothetically, up to half of all cancers can be prevented if we could maximise preventive activity. That’s 14,000 fewer people being diagnosed with cancer every year and nearly 4500 fewer people dying from cancer every year.” Wow, that sounds simple to me, just eat a whole food plantbased diet. But wait, there’s more. Lets take a look at that report. There are many elements in it that WFPB’rs will certainly salute but what about the following? “Wholegrains, non-starchy fruits/vegetables, dietary fibre, and dairy products can reduce the risk of these cancers: bowel, breast, oesophagus, kidney, bladder, liver, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx.” Oops, was there a dairy company on the horizon there? I jest, of course, but the milk bottle icon used in the report looks suspiciously like Fonterra's much-lauded opaque design - although it's now made of plant-based material and is kerbside recyclable, so that's a plus, I guess. Dr Sarfati told the conference that focusing on prevention was “the best tool we have in our tool kit”, especially in terms of
