Policy information sheets

• Proposed removal of GST Exemption on Fresh Food
• The Junk Food Industry in Australia
• Sugary Drinks Tax

Training and Information

• Talking to patients about health and weight: a 1-hour online course that is free for Victorian Health Professionals. To register select 'create new account'.
• Talking with parents about children's weight: online training that is free for Western Australian Health Professionals
• Breaking the silence – talking to patients about weight and health: a free 2-hour webinar 
• An introduction to motivational interviewing: a free 30 min podcast and associated factsheets
• Healthy kids for professionals: weight management resources, videos and podcasts for health professionals – a NSW government initiative

About our healthy recipe criteria

LiveLighter has almost 400 healthy recipes available to suit all tastes. They are consistent with the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating and all contain a nutrition information panel. The focus is on including plenty of vegetables, fruit, wholegrains and lean meats and alternatives. We showcase ways of making tasty food that doesn’t include bucket loads of sugar, fat and salt.

We aim for our recipes to be achievable by the average home cook. This means using ingredients and cooking equipment that are readily available and methods that are simple and not too time consuming. The Back to Basics series of recipes are generally simpler, cheaper and easier than the standard LiveLighter recipes.

Recipes must meet the LiveLighter nutrition criteria. There must be no nutrients in the red zone, and the majority will be in the green zone.

Healthy drink recipes

We all know that water is the healthiest drink. You can drink it straight from the tap, or try some of our favourite jazzy water combos – pineapple and sage, cucumber skewers , citrus and strawberry and mint. 

We’d love people to switch straight from soft drink to water, but we know for some people, in some situations, that’s just not feasible. That's why we've also created a range of delicious, low-sugar drink options to bridge the gap and help people to confidently break up with sugary drinks.

These drinks have a maximum of 5 g of added sugar per serving. That’s about 1 teaspoon. WHO recommends sticking to under 6 teaspoons of added sugar per day.

There’s also naturally occurring sugar in fruit and milk. We don't go bananas on this though, and have a maximum of 5% sugar for water-based drinks and 6% for milky drinks (plain milk is about 5% already so we needed more wiggle room!). This is about half the sweetness of a soft drink – with all the benefits of the nutrients in fruit and milk!

The fruit content is capped at ½ a serve of fruit per glass. We know that fruit is best eaten in its whole form. The effect of blending fruit on the fibre content and rate of digestion (and therefore blood glucose effect) is not well known. So to be on the safe side, we follow the Australian Guide To Healthy Eating’s advice about juice and stick to ½ a serve.

Evaluation of the LiveLighter program

• Association of the LiveLighter mass media campaign with consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages: Cohort study. (2019)

  Morley, B.; Niven, P.; Dixon, H.; Swanson, M.; Szybiak, M.; Shilton, T., Pratt, I.S.; Slevin, T.; Wakefield, M. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 1-9. DOI: 10.1002/hpja.244.

• Controlled cohort evaluation of the LiveLighter mass media campaign’s impact on adults’ reported consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. (2018)

  Morley, B., Niven, P., Dixon, H., Swanson, M., McAleese, A., Wakefield, M. BMJ Open 8e019574. Doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019574.

• You wouldn't eat 16 teaspoons of sugar - so why drink it? Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander responses to the LiveLighter 16 Teaspoons of Sugar campaign. (2018)

  Browne, J., MacDonald, C., Egan, M., Delbridge, R., McAleese, A., Morley, B., Atkinson, P. Health Promotion Journal of Australia 1-7. DOI: 10.1002/hpja.196

• A systematic search and review of adult-targeted overweight and obesity prevention mass media campaign and their evaluation: 2000-2017. (2018)

  Kite, J., Grunseit, A., Bohn-Goldbaum, E., Bellew, B., Carroll, T., Bauman, A. Journal of Health Communication, 23:2, 207-232, doi I: 10.1080/10810730.2018.1423651  

• Population-based evaluation of the ‘LiveLighter’ healthy weight and lifestyle mass media campaign. (2016)

  Morley, B., Niven, P., Dixon, H., Swanson, M., Szybiak, M., Shilton, T., Pratt., IS., Slevin, T., Hill, D., and Wakefield, M. Health Education Research 31(2):121-35. doi:10.1093/her/cyw009 

• The Cognitive Impact of the LiveLighter Message at the Perth Glory 2013/14. (2014)

  Reference: Ferguson, R., Rosenberg, M., and Lester, L. Health Promotion Evaluation Unit, School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health, The University of Western Australia, Perth.