The Australian Dietary Guidelines
The Australian Dietary Guidelines are published by the Australian Government and are based on scientific evidence. The Guidelines are comprehensive and advise how we should eat for health.
The Eat for Health publications and website are a user-friendly version of Guidelines in print and on the web. It provides practical advice including calculators to support healthy eating
They offer an easy-to-understand guide on what food and how much of it is beneficial for our health and wellbeing. The guidelines include 5 specific guidelines that can support you to make better health choices.
- To achieve and maintain a healthy weight, be physically active and choose amounts of nutritious food and drinks to meet your energy needs.
- Enjoy a wide variety of nutritious foods from these five food groups every day
- Limit intake of foods containing saturated fat, added salt, added sugars and alcohol
- Encourage, support and promote breastfeeding
- Care for your food; prepare and store it safely
1.
All people at all stages of life require good nutrition and appropriate physical activity to maintain a healthy body. For children and adolescents, it is important that they eat enough nutritious food to grow and develop. Daily exercise is recommended.
For adults care should be taken to also eat nutritious food and exercise in a balance that supports muscle retention and a healthy weight.
Maintaining a healthy weight is important for health. Both being overweight and underweight carry mental and physical health risks including heart disease, stroke, some cancers, respiratory issues, bone and muscle issues, and depression
2.
Most children and adults do not eat enough nutritious food each day from the 5 food groups. If we don’t get the nutrients we need we are more susceptible to chronic disease and our quality of life may be poorer. The five food groups are:
- Vegetables and legumes
- Fruits
- Lean meat and meat alternatives
- Dairy products and alternatives (low-fat preferrable)
- Grains and cereals
3.
This guideline is about limiting our intake of foods that can cause issues for our health. This may be because they are calorie dense with little nutritional value or because these foods have a negative impact on our body. These include foods and drinks containing:
- saturated fat
- added salt
- added sugars and
- alcohol
4.
Encourage, support and promote breastfeeding. It has many benefits for mother and baby. Breastfeeding has a range of benefits for infants that extend through their lives. It’s unique blend of nutrients offers protection form some disease. Children, adolescents and adults who were breatsfed have reduced rates of asthma, eczema, sudden infant death (SIDS), high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes type II.
Mothers who breastfeed also benefit from quicker postpartum recovery, and may benefit from a return to pre pregnancy weight quicker, and some cancers may be reduced.
5.
Care for your food. Practice appropriate food storage and good hygiene to avoid food contamination and illness as a result. Despite Australia having a safe and nutritious supply of food, food poisoning still occurs.
- Store food at the right temperature for each food
- Do not store raw and cooked food together
- Cook foods at the right temperature to kill pathogens
- Use clean tools when preparing food, especially when it comes to raw meat
- Pay attention to the use-by and best-before dates
- Use good hygiene, wash your hands and wash fruit and vegetables