We know that the Christmas Season and the New Year Festivities normally imply some food excesses. However, it is also possible to celebrate the festive season while not neglecting health and above all not forgetting to take additional care.

This advice follows a news bulletin released this year by the National Health Department (DGS), which stated that inadequate nutrition and overweight threaten to cause more deaths than the consumption of tobacco.


In the 2022-2023 National Program for the Promotion of Healthy Eating, released on the 16th of October, the DGS pointed out that inadequate nutrition is one of the main preventable causes of chronic non-communicable diseases. Examples of these chronic diseases are obesity, oncological diseases, type 2 diabetes, and cerebrovascular diseases, contributing to 11.4% of mortality in 2019.


This information was released after the last National Food and Physical Activity Survey, which, in addition to the figures on mortality also indicate that dietary errors are also responsible for 7.3% years of life lost due to disability Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).


This situation tends to worsen and, according to estimates cited by the DGS, in the coming years, inadequate diet may surpass tobacco in the 'ranking' of modifiable risk factors that most affect the burden of disease in Portugal.


To stop this trend, the plan aims to reduce the quantity of salt by at least 10% in the foods that most contribute to salt intake in the Portuguese population by 2027 and sugar by at least 20%. The plan is also to further increase the information on the principles of the Mediterranean diet to the public in general.


By 2030, DGS also wants to increase the percentage of fruit and vegetable consumption by at least 400 grams in adults, children, and teenagers and to reduce the consumption of meat, ultra-processed food, and soft drinks as well as other beverages and sugary foods, especially in children and adolescents.


Currently, 56% of the population has a fruit and vegetable consumption of less than 400 g/day, a percentage that rises to 72% in children and 78% in teenagers. In addition, 41% of teenagers consume soft drinks daily and the daily energy requirements obtained from the intake of ultra-processed food reaches 24%.


After 10 years of a strong investment strategy, in the two central pillars of food and nutrition which were the modification of the food environment and the changes in individual behaviour, the National Program for the Promotion of Healthy Eating, concluded that it is important to reverse the trend in the prevalence of obesity in adults until 2030 and, also reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents by at least 5%, says the DGS.


The National Program for the Promotion of Healthy Eating was created in 2012 as a priority health program. Make this your priority as well, starting this Christmas, and increase the possibility of having many healthy Christmases.

Don't forget less salt, less sugar, less meat, less processed foods, and less sodas.



Write this down on your shopping list for the Festive Season.

Merry Christmas.


For more information contact Grupo HPA Saude at +351 282 420 400