Population Health researcher, Dr Rachel Sutherland’s SWAP It program has been named in the 10 of the Best research programs at the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) annual Research Excellence Awards Dinner held in Canberra tonight. 

Population Health researcher, Dr Rachel Sutherland’s SWAP It program has been named in the 10 of the Best research programs at the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) annual Research Excellence Awards Dinner held in Canberra tonight.  

Dr Sutherland was the recipient of an NHMRC grant that helped her scale up her healthy lunchbox program to reach 550 schools across Australia.  

The Minister of Health and Aged Care, NHMRC’s CEO Professor Wesselingh, NHMRC Council members and other well-known members of the health and medical research community attended the prestigious event held at the National Gallery of Australia.  

Dr Sutherland’s  SWAP IT program was rolled out nationally through an app called Skoolbag that is used in Australian schools. 

The idea behind SWAP IT is simple: to educate parents and students around better lunchbox choices, swapping high sugar, high fat snack foods for lower GI, less processed and healthier options at no extra cost.  

Dr Sutherland says, “More than 85 per cent of school children take a packed lunch to school every day; however, packed inside are more than three servings of energy-dense, nutrition-poor snack foods. 

“Making one to two simple swaps every day in the lunchbox can have an enormous impact at a population level, both in terms of health, education and wellbeing. 

“I am very passionate about ensuring programs are delivered at scale, reach the communities that they would benefit most, and that research is translated and doesn’t just sit idle on the shelf. 

“SWAP IT has now been embedded into the NSW Ministry of Health Live Life Well @ School program and is being implemented as usual health promotion practice across NSW,” she says.