Niki Bezzant: Vege and sausage sizzle a start to revolution

Schoolkids try a sausage sizzle with veges, without a complaint. Photo / Supplied

How can we make New Zealand a healthier place, and New Zealanders healthier people?

Can you do it with a simple sausage in a piece of bread?

Those were some of the big - and small - questions for more than 200 delegates at the Activity and Nutrition Aotearoa conference last week in Wellington.

It was an energetic and inspiring event. In the face of a diabesity crisis and increasing inactivity, there are thousands of people around the country fighting for change.

They are people who understand that turning the tide is not just about policy and strategy (although these are crucial) but also about people and community. And even though meaningful policy seems slow in coming, health-focused groups all over New Zealand are not waiting around.

Instead, they're working on projects aimed at making the healthy choice the easy choice.

A couple of small, simple projects struck me as fantastic examples of this. The first is Choice As Sizzle project run by Healthy Families Invercargill.

This scheme homes in on that staple of the Kiwi weekend: the sausage sizzle.

The project started to give a healthy nudge to the humble snag by doing four simple things: switching the bread, ditching the spread, swapping the sauce and adding some veg.

In other words: switching from white bread to wholegrain, not using any butter or margarine, using a less sugary and salty sauce and adding in coleslaw, spinach or onions.

The group trialled the idea at events and found - shock - no one noticed or complained.

They went to The Warehouse and Mitre 10 and asked them to adopt the Choice As Sizzle as policy for their weekend fundraisers.

After initial resistance, they said yes. Now if you want to book a sizzle for your fundraiser, you have to do it the Choice As way.

Choice As Sizzles have been at schools and sports events, at workplaces and carparks, all over town. There has been very little pushback from punters. The world has kept spinning on its axis and the people of Invercargill have had a healthier experience for their gold coin donations.

It's a small thing, but has started a bigger conversation.

The same goes for another super simple project. The "water kit" developed by Wellington charity Healthy Futures aims to improve our food environment. To make school and sports events free of sugary drinks, they set up attractive water dispensers loaded with ice, fruit and veges and offered the water for free at gala days, sports prizegivings and school events.

Healthy Futures offers the kit for free to any community groups who want to use it. Again, the idea has spread, with very little resistance. Water-only has become the new normal for one Wellington community.

These are good reminders we don't always have to try and set the world on fire to make meaningful change in our world. Simple can be beautiful and effective.