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HEALTH PROMOTION AND HEALTHY NUTRITION CHOICES – HOW WE DO IT IN CROATIA

„Healthy Living” is the comprehensive, multi-sectoral Croatian National Health Promotion Program that was adopted by the Government in 2015. Its activities are implemented on a national level and aim to create accessible, healthier environments in local communities in addition to informing, educating, and raising awareness of the positive aspects of healthy lifestyles. The Program has five main components: Health Education, Health and Physical Activity, Health and Nutrition, Health and the Workplace and Health and the Environment. The Health and Nutrition component, as part of the holistic approach to health promotion, aims to make healthy nutritional choices easier by labeling food products with the front-of-package mark Healthy Living. The Healthy Living mark has a dual purpose - to help consumers identify and choose foods beneficial for health, as well as to stimulate product reformulation by the food industry. The driving force behind the label is a governmental institution, the Croatian Institute of Public Health. It is a positive directive front-of pack label that summarizes the ‘healthiness’ of a product without displaying any nutritional information and conveys a positive health message. Since the mark, a green cloud, is very similar to the logo of the entire Croatian “Healthy Living” program, it has become a symbol of healthy choices and healthy environments that is easily recognized by consumers in Croatia. The mark is voluntary, which means that food firms may choose whether or not to use the Healthy Living mark on-pack. As an intervention that is becoming increasingly recognized at the European level, the Healthy Living labelling system is just one of the responses to the public health challenges we are facing today. In Croatia, the country with the highest share of adults with overweight and obesity in the European Union that is estimated to have almost a million adults living with obesity by 2030, comprehensive multi-sectoral health promoting interventions are needed now more than ever. The new Croatian Action plan on the prevention of obesity that is currently in preparation will hopefully summarize all the required efforts and prepare a strategic response to the public health crisis we are now facing.

Healthy Living, front-of-pack labelling, health promotion

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