,” Banducci said. Banducci’s comments come as the supermarket business released its second annual Living Healthy report, which found that the quality of Australian diets is dire, but it’s not all down to what’s on your plate. The report, launched on Tuesday, uses data collected across Woolworths Group’s businesses, from supermarkets to department stores, to create a snapshot of the nutritional value of Australians’ weekly shop. And, according to the report, there’s a lot of work to be done. Australians are not meeting recommended servings across all five major food groups each day (grains, vegetables and legumes, fruit, dairy and alternatives, and meat and alternatives), while they are more than doubling the recommended intake of discretionary foods. Interestingly, Woolworths Group’s Food and Health Survey 2022 found that cost was the key reason cited by people who eat healthily, as well as those who don’t. Almost half (43 per cent) of the people who eat healthy do so because they believe it to be cheaper than eating out, while almost a third (29 per cent) of those who avoid eating healthy foods do so because they believe them to be more expensive. Simone Austin, chief health officer at HealthyLife, Woolworths’ health food arm, told Inside Retail that this disparity is largely due to the lack of public education around healthy food. Most people avoid buying canned vegetables, for example, because there is a perception that they aren’t as healthy as fresh options. However, fresh options tend to become more expensive as supply fluctuates, which can create the illusion that healthy food costs more. “We need to make vegetables the hero. They’re naturally bitter, so people need to know how to cook them to bring out the sweetness,” Austin said. “Frozen and canned vegetables are just as nutritious as well, and are great options when something [fresh] is too expensive.” Wellbeing in the workplace However, food is only one part of the problem. More Australians than ever are grappling with stress, anxiety, and mental health problems – one in five, according to the report – which is having a significant impact on their health, and driving unhealthy behaviours both at work and at home. In order to better support its own workers, Woolworths Group has signed on to mental wellbeing service Sonder, which provides staff with the ability to reach out when feeling overwhelmed. According to the survey data, 40 per cent do so because of high levels of stress, 32 per cent because of acute mental health issues, and 17 per cent because of anxiety. Austin noted that those figures are likely to be fairly consistent with other workplaces around the country. Employees’ mental health has traditionally been an afterthought to most businesses, according to Woolworths’ chief medical officer Dr Rob McCartney, though that is changing rapidly following lessons learned during the pandemic. “The last few years have come with a lot of changes, and amongst them is a shift in the way we think about mentally healthy workplace,” McCartney said. “One study shows that improvements in mental health in the workplace will have healthier employees overall with, on average, every dollar spent on improving mental health returning $2.30 in benefits.” One important thing for businesses to keep in mind when working to improve their employees’ mental health, Austin said, is creating a sense of community within the workplace. “If your workplace shares your values, it’s going to make the workplace a very different and supportive environment,” Austin said. “If you don’t feel like you belong in a place, that’s going to be stressful – let alone looking at things like working hours or working conditions.”