At Metro South Health we care about helping you enjoy the best health and wellbeing, all day, every day. Whether you’re receiving treatment, working, visiting patients or living in our communities, we’re here to help you live healthy and well. An important area is the food and drinks in our vending machines, cafés, coffee carts and staff canteens.

Healthy changes are happening

As part of the ‘Healthier Choices’ project, we’re working to improve the food and drink options in our vending machines, cafés, coffee carts and staff canteens.

We aim to:

• offer a variety of high quality, nutritious food and drink choices
• make sure you can access healthy food and drink options whenever you need them
• make it easy to choose food and drinks that are good for you

To help you stay healthy, we’re making some important changes:

• reducing the amount of unhealthy foods and drinks with low nutritional value
• increasing the amount of healthier foods and drinks and displaying them more clearly.

Healthier Food and Drinks in Healthcare Facilities

In line with the Queensland Government Health Service Directive, we’ve made some changes to the food and drinks for sale in our hospitals and health centres.

High sugar drinks will no longer be available in our vending machines, cafés, staff canteens and retail outlets, however, there will still be a wide range of drinks available, including fruit juices, soft drinks with artificial sweeteners, water, kombucha, coffees and teas – all from quality brands you know and trust.

The changes to food and drinks are taking place in public hospitals and health centres across Queensland. Visit the A better choice website for more information.

Go Green for Wellbeing 

We’ve made it easy for you to choose the healthiest food and drinks. Using the traffic light system, we’ve labelled up the items for sale using green, amber and red stickers – look out for them when you’re browsing the shelves.

We’re encouraging everyone to ‘go green for wellbeing’ and choose the healthiest food and drinks every day. Eating healthily can be tasty and easy. It can help you feel better, stay well and get more out of life. We understand that a wide choice of food and drinks is important to our visitors, patients and staff. You told us this loud and clear through surveys and consultations. Wherever possible we will maintain a wide choice of food and drinks for sale – we are determined to maintain the balance between promoting health and wellbeing and providing a good choice. Alongside excellent care, providing a great experience for patients, visitors and staff is our number one priority. The changes in the Healthier Choices project align closely to Planetree and its values of self-care and food as nourishment. To learn more about the project, check out the Healthier Choices flyer (PDF, 3.13 MB)

Want to know more about healthier eating and drinking?

We’ve made our decisions to not promote or sell unhealthy drinks based on research and ensuring our hospitals and health facilities encourage health and wellbeing for our patients, visitors, staff and volunteers.

• Healthier Drinks Flyer (PDF, 244.64 KB)

Visit the links below to find out more information about the importance of maintaining a healthy diet.

Australian Dietary Guidelines

This Guideline seeks to offer the best advice on dietary patterns that promote optimal health and wellbeing for the generally healthy Australian population.
https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/australian-dietary-guidelines
Published by: The National Health and Medical Research Council – Australian Government

Rethink Sugary Drink

Rethink Sugary Drink is a partnership between a number of health and community organisations and provides information on how much sugar is typically found in certain drinks and the effect on the human body.
http://www.rethinksugarydrink.org.au/

Give us your feedback

Give us your feedback on Healthier Choices.