Promoting healthier lifestyles for prisoners - National Audit Office

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Promoting healthier lifestyles for prisonersSome ideas to tryYou may liketo considerthe following:l Use opportunities to talk through withprisoners their previous diet and lifestyle.l Display healthy eating posters inexercise zones.l Frequently rotate the publicity material– including colourful, eye-catching posterssuch as those available from British NutritionFoundation (www.nutrition.org/upload/wholeoplatesm(1)jpg) and www.nutrition.org.uk/upload/CHDHEART.pdf.l Include some posters focusing on “success”stories, and how much better those prisonershave felt since they changed their diets.l Make a point of meeting all new prisoners tofind out about their lifestyles and offer simplesteps (initially) to help them improve.l Ask prisoners how easy they find it to identifyand choose healthier food options andfeedback any findings to catering staff. Do theyknow that low-fat options are not necessarilyalso low in salt? Do they understand what tolook for and how to balance their diet?16
How can I persuade them to eat better?l Encourage good choices through offeringto help monitor food intake/exercise done(e.g. through weekly or monthly food/exercise “diaries”).l Remind prisoners that choosing healthy mealswill be less advantageous if they then eatconfectionery or unhealthy foods from theprison tuck shop.l Encourage learning through workingin kitchens, and working towardscatering qualifications.l Work with catering staff to offer specialpromotions days/competitions to try toencourage better awareness of healthierfoods and diets.Did you know?> Meals offered to prisoners in 2004-5 closely matched cateringrequirements 5 (except on salt and some other trace elements).> In 2004-05, prisoners struggled to eat healthily because theyreceived little information on healthy eating, unless they had beenplaced on a special diet for a medical reason, such as diabetes.Some food options were listed as healthy on the menus but werenot actually healthy or even the healthiest options on the menu.> Researchers working with NAO found that younger prisoners werethe most resistant to eating healthily, and that they often chosehigh fat dishes.> Wandsworth Prison told us that over the last few years there hasbeen an increasing trend towards healthier options, with relativelyhigh percentages of prisoners selecting the healthier option mainmeal followed by yoghurt or fruit afterwards.17
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Page 3 and 4: You, as prison PE officers, are in
Page 5 and 6: Contents6It’s about diet as well
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Page 33 and 34: What others do and how they do it..
Page 39: About the National Audit OfficeThe

Promoting healthier lifestyles for prisoners - National Audit Office

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