What are the dietary guidelines?
In Australia, the Australian Dietary Guidelines and the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating have been developed to advise the general population on key messages regarding everyday food choices, to promote good health, wellbeing and prevent dietary-related conditions and chronic diseases. These guidelines are developed through a rigorous process of evaluating high quality research in the areas of food, nutrition, and health.
The guidelines exist to promote healthy, balanced diets and prevent lifestyle related diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases:
- To achieve and maintain a healthy weight, be physically active and choose amounts of nutritious foods and drinks to meet your energy needs.
- Enjoy a wide variety of nutritious foods from the five food groups every day.
- Limit your 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.
The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE)
The ADGs inform the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE). The AGHE provides more information about the types of foods that are considered nutrient-rich, core foods, and that form the basis of a healthy eating pattern, and which should be eaten most often.
There are five core food groups, which includes:
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Carbohydrates
- Dairy and Dairy Alternatives
- Meats and meat alternatives
For each of the nutrient-rich, core food groups, there are recommendations around how many serves of each of the nutrient-rich, core food groups that a person could eat to achieve a healthy balanced diet.
The recommended number of serves are based on a person’s age, sex and whether they are pregnant or breastfeeding.
Each person’s energy and nutrient requirements will vary with their age, sex, life stage, pregnancy or breastfeeding status, as well as their level of physical activity, their occupation and health status. Which may increase or decrease the amount and types of foods that you need to eat.
To see if you are meeting the Dietary Guidelines and the AGHE, take our Healthy Eating Quiz for personalised results!
