Diet and nutrition: key points

• Good nutrition is essential to both current health and wellbeing, and health and wellbeing in later life. Eating a healthy diet can help reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, cancers, obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and tooth decay. 
• A review of progress towards dietary targets, originally set in the Scottish Diet Action Plan (SDAP) 'Eating for health' (1996) for achievement in 2005, found that none of them had been met. 
• In 2006, three quarters of the population had a daily salt intake higher than the recommended maximum 6g per day.  
• The most recent estimates of fruit and vegetable consumption in Scotland indicate that only 20% of men and 24% of women consumed the recommended amount of five or more portions per day in 2008, similar to that reported in 2003.
• People living in the most deprived areas of Scotland are less likely to meet five-a-day recommendations for daily fruit and vegetable consumption compared with those in the least deprived areas.
• In 2008, the Scottish Government published Healthy eating, active living, a 3-year (2008-2011) action plan to improve diet, increase physical activity and tackle obesity in Scotland. This was followed by the publication of Scotland's first National food & drink policy in June 2009.
• In February 2010, the Scottish Government and COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) published Preventing overweight and obesity in Scotland: A route map towards healthy weight.  This 'obesity strategy' unveils ambitious plans to work across every area of government to make healthy choices easier for Scotland's population and sets out a range of preventative actions primarily targeted at decision makers in central and local government. 

  

Section updates: The last major update of this section was completed in March 2010. The next major update is due to be carried out by the end of March 2011.