NATIONAL NUTRITION COUNCIL 2003

Finnish dietary problems

The most prevalent nutritional problem in Finland is obesity, which is becoming more common with men and women of all age groups. Finnish children are gaining weight even faster than adults are. With obesity becoming more widespread, an increasing number of people develop hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cholelithiasis and musculo-skeletal diseases, which have considerable economic consequences.

The Finnish diet still contains too much hard fat and salt. An excess intake of hard fat and salt increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, which are still the most common cause of death in Finland. Diseases related to nutritional problems, such as hypertension, disturbances in fat metabolism and type 2 diabetes, are treated with medicines, although medicines could be given up or their use reduced if bad food habits were put right, alcohol consumption diminished and physical activity increased.

Other significant nutritional problems include low intake of vitamin D and dental caries. The vitamin D intake of Finns from food is lower than recommended in almost all age groups, which is the reason vitamin D supplementation of liquid milk products was started in early 2003. The health effects of vitamin D enrichment should be monitored. Dental caries, on the other hand, declined sharply for three decades, after which there has been no positive development. At the same time, consumption of sweets has increased strongly and the eating pattern of Finns has changed more towards continuous snacking. In addition to health care measures, a change in health behaviour is necessary, especially in regularising eating patterns and using fluoride and xylitol products as recommended.

Implementing nutrition recommendations in different fields

Central government. Opportunities for central government possibilities to influence nutrition policy have become more limited. These developments are due to Finland’s accession to the European Union, changes in the relationship between central and local government, and cuts in state subsidies for municipal government. The central government can influence the food habits of the population and guide nutrition and food policy by means of statutes, allocation of resources, information and supervision. The only body currently co-ordinating national nutrition policy is the National Nutrition Council, but it does not have sufficient resources to perform the task. The Council should be developed into an authority that co-ordinates nutrition policy and is consulted by various actors in this field in an expert capacity and as a source of information. A full-time position of Secretary-General is therefore needed on the Council to make it capable of handling these tasks.

Local government. Municipal nutritional services ensure the daily well being of children of day-care age and school age, guide them toward healthy diets and instil desirable behaviour as regards dietary habits. Food services also have an important role in public health service institutions, care institutions and in care services provided for the elderly. A quality system should be established in food services to guarantee safety and nutritional quality. Research and development, statistics, guidance and co-ordination of food services should also be promoted. The nutritional skills of personnel in the social and health sector, food supervision and the teaching profession should be enhanced and maintained.

Home, childcare clinics and children’s day-care. The basis for children’s dietary habits is built in everyday situations at home and in day-care, when food is selected and prepared and meals are served. Day-care must be capable of responding to various life situations, backgrounds and family values, and therefore multiprofessional co-operation is needed to support families in this respect. Quality criteria should be established for day-care meals to guarantee their nutritional value, and it should be possible to monitor how these criteria are met. Nutritional education is part of childcare, guidance and upbringing. Eating problems and problems in everyday food provisioning do not receive enough attention in the basic and supplementary training of child-care clinic personnel. Continued education in the field of nutrition and easily arranged nutrition consultation should be available to child-care clinic personnel.

Comprehensive school and upper secondary school. School is an important environment for nutritional education for children and adolescents. Efficient nutritional education can influence the eating pattern of children and adolescents. Nutritional education is given at school by teachers, food services personnel and school health care personnel working together. In basic education, nutritional education is an area of focus in home economics and health education. Continuing education is needed to improve teachers’ proficiency in nutritional education.

Social and health services. Faults in nutrition are an important factor in increasing the incidence of chronic diseases and mortality. Despite this fact, nutritional guidance and care have been neglected in the social and health services system. Co-operation and division of responsibilities between individuals and agencies participating in nutritional guidance and care should be improved. The professional skills of personnel should be supported by continuing education and by developing nutrition consultation and information systems. If nutritional guidance and care are not improved, the resultant diseases will bring a drastic increase in service needs.

The armed forces. The objective of provisioning in the armed forces is to provide healthy, varied and adequate nutrition to conscripts in conformance with general nutrition recommendations. The health problem conscripts seem to be suffering from during service is that the level of blood lipids tends to rise. More nutrition education should therefore be provided for conscripts, paying special attention to prevention of obesity and food choices in the free time.

Eating at work. Each working individual should have the opportunity to peacefully enjoy a healthy, tasty meal during the working day. During the 1990’s, the number of lunches eaten at staff canteens has been on the decline, however, and boxed lunches have become more popular. Tax incentives, employment contract measures and financial measures supporting public food services are used in an effort to make proper meals eaten during the working day more popular. Sufficient basic and supplementary training should be organised for providers of food services and personnel in order to encourage proper meals during the working day.

Primary production. Finnish agriculture forms part of the agricultural policy of the European Union, which guides and regulates production through market systems, quotas and subsidiaries. The national target of agricultural policy is to set up a quality system covering the entire food chain, to which all parties in the chain are committed in order to ensure the safety of foodstuffs and sufficient product quality and to boost the competitive edge of the domestic food market and food industry. Sales of agricultural products are promoted both by the EU single market and by domestic markets. Hence an attempt should be made to affect EU sales promotion programmes in a way that allows key nutrition issues to be factored in.

Food industry and sales. Industrial food products are an important part of the daily food consumed by Finnish people. The Finnish food industry has taken nutrition recommendations well into account in product development, especially the targets regarding fats and salt. The commercial sector sees to it that a good selection of foodstuffs is available in Finland throughout the year from which people can build a tasty meal with good nutrition value. The role of the commercial sector as a nutrition educator is complementary to that of the state, the media and educational establishments. Labels on nutritional value on packages should be made more consumer-friendly. Nutritional education is not taken care of merely by labelling, however, but the industry and commercial sector should develop alternative ways of informing the public about the nutritional content of the products.

Communications. Communications is a means of putting nutrition recommendations into practice in all sectors of nutrition. Communications is also needed in nutritional education of various age and demographic groups and in the work being done in various sectors of the food system towards action in conformity with the recommendations. The food sector should constantly consider how information about nutrition could be made more appealing and attention grabbing. Nutrition recommendations should be formulated into precisely targeted messages adapted to the environment and lifestyle of different target groups.

Organisations. Promoting healthy nutrition forms an important part of the work of civic organisations. Most organisations offer guidance and information material on nutrition for citizens and also personal guidance and training. Nearly all organisations are engaged in communications concerning healthy nutrition in various ways. Co-operation between organisations and co-operation with public health care and other stakeholders should be encouraged and developed. Organisations and other actors should also enhance co-operation at the local level.

Vocational schools and institutes of higher education. Increasing importance is being attached to vocational proficiency and maintaining it as a means of nutrition policy. This requires constant upgrading of the know-how and guidance skills of the social, health care, educational, food services, physical culture, and food supervision sectors. The targets and extent of nutritional education provided in basic education in these sectors should be reassessed.

Research on nutrition. Domestic research on nutrition produces new information on the nutritional status of the population, the factors influencing it and the impacts of nutrition on health and general fitness. Research creates contacts with the international scientific community and makes it possible to use information produced elsewhere for the benefit of our country. Research also creates capabilities for assessing new information and assists in predicting the future. Research into the food consumption of special groups, such as children and adolescents, should be fostered. The requirements for active research on nutrition should be charted and improved. Research on nutrition should be fostered by public financing allocated to various research programmes.

Food control. Among the chemicals found in Finnish food, dioxins and PCB in Baltic fish, methyl mercury in fish from certain lakes, and cadmium in elk liver and kidneys present a problem. Pesticide residues are small in Finnish foodstuffs and do not represent any health risks. Except for salt, the use of additives is small by international comparison, and therefore risks caused by food additives can be considered negligible. On the other hand, risks caused by microbial spoilage of food pose a greater problem than chemicals. To diminish chemical and microbial risks from food, more education should be provided alongside efficient supervision, as this makes citizens better aware of various food risks and their magnitude. Hygiene at the various stages of the food chain and sufficient expertise in monitoring chemical risks in government administration and in municipalities should be ensured.

Food legislation. Finnish food legislation for the most part conforms to the legislation of the European Communities in the harmonised domain. In preparing Community law, Finland should use the right of Member States to national decision-making power in accordance with the subsidiarity principle. Finland will maintain existing - and where necessary, enact new - national legislation in legislative fields in which regulations diverging from Community law are required for reasons of national health.