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Globally, there is increasing interest in monitoring actions to create healthy, equitable and environmentally sustainable food environments. Currently, there is a lack of detailed tools for monitoring and benchmarking university food environments. This study aimed to develop the University Food Environment Assessment (Uni-Food) tool and process to benchmark the healthiness, equity, and environmental sustainability of food environments in tertiary education settings, and pilot test its implementation in three Australian universities in 2021. The Uni-Food tool development was informed by a review of the literature and input from an expert advisory panel. It comprises three components: (1) university systems and governance, (2) campus facilities and environments, and (3) food retail outlets. The process for implementing the tool is designed for universities to self-assess the extent to which they have implemented recommended practice in 68 indicators, across 16 domains, weighted based on their relative importance. The pilot implementation of the tool identified moderate diversity in food environments across universities and highlighted several opportunities for improvements at each institution. The assessment process was found to be reliable, with assessors rating the tool as easy to use, requiring minimal resources. Broad application of the tool has the potential to increase accountability and guide best practice in tertiary education and other complex institutional settings.

Objective:To compare the cost and affordability of two fortnightly diets (representing the national guidelines and current consumption) across areas containing Australia’s major supermarkets.Design:The Healthy Diets Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing protocol was used.Setting:Price data were collected online and via phone calls in fifty-one urban and inner regional locations across Australia.Participants:Not applicable.Results:Healthy diets were consistently less expensive than current (unhealthy) diets. Nonetheless, healthy diets would cost 25–26 % of the disposable income for low-income households and 30–31 % of the poverty line. Differences in gross incomes (the most available income metric which overrepresents disposable income) drove national variations in diet affordability (from 14 % of the median gross household incomes in the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory to 25 % of the median gross household income in Tasmania).Conclusions:In Australian cities and regional areas with major supermarkets, access to affordable diets remains problematic for families receiving low incomes. These findings are likely to be exacerbated in outer regional and remote areas (not included in this study). To make healthy diets economically appealing, policies that reduce the (absolute and relative) costs of healthy diets and increase the incomes of Australians living in poverty are required.

The modern Western diet has been consumed in developed English speaking countries for the last 50 years, and is now gradually being adopted in Eastern and developing countries. These nutrition transitions are typified by an increased intake of high linoleic acid (LA) plant oils, due to their abundance and low price, resulting in an increase in the PUFA n-6:n-3 ratio. This increase in LA above what is estimated to be required is hypothesised to be implicated in the increased rates of obesity and other associated non-communicable diseases which occur following a transition to a modern Westernised diet. LA can be converted to the metabolically active arachidonic acid, which has roles in inducing inflammation and adipogenesis, and endocannabinoid system regulation. This review aims to address the possible implications of excessive LA and its metabolites in the pathogenesis of obesity.

Despite the abundance of plant-derived fats in our diet, their effects on appetite, and metabolic markers, remain unclear. This single-blinded 3-way cross-over pilot study aimed to investigate the ability of the two most abundant dietary plant-derived fats, oleic (OA) and linoleic (LA) acids, to modulate postprandial appetite and levels of circulating appetite and metabolic regulators in overweight/obese individuals. Meals were a high-carbohydrate control, a high-OA or a high-LA meal, and provided 30% of participants’ estimated energy requirements. Meals were consumed after an overnight fast, with blood samples collected over 3¼ h. Appetite parameters were assessed via a validated visual analogue scale questionnaire. Hormones and other circulating factors were quantified using multiplex immunoassays. Eight participants (age 45.8 ± 3.6 (years), body mass index 32.0 ± 1.3 (kg/m2)) completed the study. All meals significantly increased fullness and reduced desire to eat. The control and high-OA meals significantly decreased prospective food intake. The high-LA meal increased ghrelin levels (p < 0.05), a hormone which encourages food intake. This was coupled with a significant acute increase in resistin levels, which impairs insulin signaling. Taken together, this study indicates that in overweight/obese individuals, high-LA meals may promote excess energy intake and alter glucose handling, though a larger cohort may be required to strengthen results.

Since the 1960s, Australian diets have changed considerably, influenced by a burgeoning multicultural cuisine, increase in urbanisation and food technology advances. This has been described as a ‘nutrition transition’, resulting in the adoption of a Western diet pattern, with a shift away from unrefined foods towards a diet higher in both plant-derived high PUFA and total fats and refined carbohydrates. Utilising the 1961–2009 annual food supply data from the UN FAO, the present study investigated changes in the intake of macronutrient and specific fatty acid in the Australian population, including that of the PUFA linoleic acid (LA), due to its hypothesised role in inflammation and risk for obesity. Cumulative change over time for the contribution of specific nutrients to total available energy (TAE) was calculated, as was linearity of change. Over the time period analysed, the cumulative change in TAE from carbohydrate was − 9·35 and +16·67 % from lipid. The cumulative change in TAE from LA was +120·48 %. Moreover, the cumulative change in the contribution of LA to total PUFA availability was +7·1 %. Utilising the average g/d per capita of LA from selected dietary sources, the change in the contribution of specific foodstuffs was assessed, with total plant oils having a cumulative change of +627·19 % to LA availability, equating to a cumulative change of +195·61 % in contribution to total LA availability. The results of the present study indicate that LA availability in Australia has increased over the previous five decades as a result of the availability of increased plant oils, as has total fat, possibly contributing to the increasing rates of obesity and obesity-associated co-morbidities.

Endocannabinoids and their G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR) are a current research focus in the area of obesity due to the system’s role in food intake and glucose and lipid metabolism. Importantly, overweight and obese individuals often have higher circulating levels of the arachidonic acid-derived endocannabinoids anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG) and an altered pattern of receptor expression. Consequently, this leads to an increase in orexigenic stimuli, changes in fatty acid synthesis, insulin sensitivity, and glucose utilisation, with preferential energy storage in adipose tissue. As endocannabinoids are products of dietary fats, modification of dietary intake may modulate their levels, with eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acid based endocannabinoids being able to displace arachidonic acid from cell membranes, reducing AEA and 2-AG production. Similarly, oleoyl ethanolamide, a product of oleic acid, induces satiety, decreases circulating fatty acid concentrations, increases the capacity forβ-oxidation, and is capable of inhibiting the action of AEA and 2-AG in adipose tissue. Thus, understanding how dietary fats alter endocannabinoid system activity is a pertinent area of research due to public health messages promoting a shift towards plant-derived fats, which are rich sources of AEA and 2-AG precursor fatty acids, possibly encouraging excessive energy intake and weight gain.