Eat For Health Program & The Australian Dietary Guidelines

To achieving and maintain a healthy weight it is essential to be physically active but also fuel the body with appropriate amounts of nutritious food and drinks to meet energy needs. People expend a lot of energy whilst exercising and also undertaking other physical activity, like housework, certain types of employment, looking after children etc...

In order to receive enough nutrients and energy to perform these tasks, the body must be given the right balance of protein, complex carbohydrates, calcium, and iron. Essentially, proper nutrition gives your body the fuel it needs to perform at its highest level and helps to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

In addition to this basic advice, this guideline provides specific recommendations to the following groups:

• Children and adolescents - They should eat sufficient nutritious foods to grow and develop normally. They should be physically active every day and their growth should be checked regularly.

• Older people - They should eat nutritious foods and keep physically active to help maintain muscle strength and a healthy weight.

The Guidelines specify five groups of foods from which people should select their daily food intake from:

1. Vegetables and Legumes/Beans - This is one of the largest recommended food groups, and it's recommended that a good variety of colours are considered when selecting specific vegetables to purchase and eat.

2. Fruit - Should be eaten fresh, raw, and in its whole form to maximise the nutritional benefits. Eating dried fruit regularly is not recommended as it is high in kilojoules, can stick to the teeth and increases the risk of dental decay. Fruit juice should only be drunk occasionally as it is acidic and can increase dental erosion as well as lacking the beneficial dietary fibre that comes from eating whole fruit. This fibre content helps with the digestion of the natural fructose (sugar) that fruit contains meaning fruit juice has quite a high sugar content.

3. Grain (cereal) foods - Should be mostly wholegrain and/or high cereal fibre varieties, such as bread, cereals, rice, pasta, noodles, polenta, couscous, oats, quinoa and barley.

4. Lean meats and alternatives - Lean meats include poultry and fish as well as lean red meat. The alternative reference includes eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds, and legumes/beans. This group is a good source of protein and other vitamins and minerals.

5. Milk, yoghurt, cheese and/or their alternatives - Should be mostly reduced fat (note: reduced-fat milk is not suitable for children under the age of 2 years).

And finally, drink plenty of water. It is recommended that adults drink between 2.1 - 2.6 litres per day (or 8-10 cups).

The five food groups are not evenly distributed. You may have previously seen them illustrated in a pyramid shape or as per the image below in a pie chart or plate shape.  The image below is known as the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, it provides a visual guide to how the five food groups from this guideline should be distributed in terms of serving sizes. 

To achieve a balanced diet, the biggest portion in any given meal or daily food intake should be allocated to the combined Vegetables and Fruit groups, followed by the Grains group, then Lean Meats and finally Milk, Yoghurt and Cheese. 

The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating also identifies certain food and beverage items which should only be consumed in limited quantities. Including, Fats and Oils, Soft Drinks, Alcohol, Cake, Confectionary and Take-away burgers/chips.

Portion size is a commonly misunderstood concept and it is easy to consume too much food, even healthy food. Ideal portion sizes will vary depending on whether a person is male, female, young, old, highly active or mostly sedentary. However, some guides to  assist with determine appropriate quantities are:

This guideline is fairly self-explanatory, however, there are some specific recommendations on how it can be achieved and also some situations where the guideline is not necessarily applicable:

• Limit intake of foods high in saturated fat such as many biscuits, cakes, pastries, pies, processed meats, commercial burgers, pizza, fried foods, potato chips, crisps and other savoury snacks.

  • Replace high-fat foods which contain predominantly saturated fats such as butter, cream, cooking margarine, coconut and palm oil with foods which contain predominantly polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats such as oils, spreads, nut butters/pastes and avocado.

  • Low-fat diets are not suitable for children under the age of 2 years.

• Limit intake of foods and drinks containing added salt.

  • Read labels to choose lower sodium options among similar foods.

  • Do not add salt to foods in cooking or at the table.

• Limit intake of foods and drinks containing added sugars such as confectionery, sugar-sweetened soft drinks and cordials, fruit drinks, vitamin waters, energy and sports drinks.

• If you choose to drink alcohol, limit intake. For women who are pregnant, planning a pregnancy or breastfeeding, not drinking alcohol is the safest option.

Generally appropriate for people who are cooking and storing food, which may not be applicable in a fitness environment. However, many fitness centres and health clubs also run cafeterias or sell drinks and snakes from kiosks. It is also appropriate if any special events are planned where there may be a barbeque or a cake-stall. 

Some considerations relating to basic food safety include:

• Wash your hands prior to preparing food.

• Ensure food is stored, prepared, and served at the correct temperature ie. frozen goods stored at -18°, cold goods stored at between 0° and 5°, hot foods should be heated to at least 75° and not allowed to drop below 60° prior to serving.

• Do not mix food items that are going to be eaten raw (ie. salad) with the juices of uncooked meat. For example, use separate chopping boards and knives.

• Ensure foods are utilised within their recommended use-by date.

• Ensure the food storage and preparation area is not contaminated with insects or vermin.

The Educator Guide, which is a resource in the Eat For Health Program, provides a comprehensive overview of the program and the Australian Dietary Guidelines and is especially useful for personnel responsible for the provision of healthy eating information. It contains detailed tables of serving sizes, associated kilojoules, and various examples of eating recommendations for different cohorts. There are also helpful templates that can be used to help clients to formulate their healthy eating plan.

It must be noted that any information or advice that is provided to clients must be based on the generic and publicly available information from this guide and also the other resources of the Eat For Health Program. It is also prudent to remember that information and advice only be provided to healthy individuals who do not have extenuating lifestyle circumstances.

Chapter Five of the Educator Guide covers information regarding Energy and Nutrient Requirements, in particular, two different types of dietary patterns:

According to the Educator Guide the different categories of physical activity which contribute to the need for increased kilojoules in a Total Diet are:

• Sedentary activities - Mainly sitting or lying down, using little energy.

• Light activities - Standing and moving around in the home, workplace or community.

• Moderate activities - Walking briskly, gentle swimming, social tennis. 

• Vigorous activities - Makes you huff and puff, talking is difficult. Includes jogging, aerobics, and sports such as football and netball.

The number of additional kilojoules that are required to help fuel these activity levels will vary substantially from one person to the next. It is very difficult to provide a generic example as it relies so heavily on factors such as age, gender, and height.  However, the below estimates of additional kilojoules required are based upon men and women aged between 31 - 50 who fit into the different activity level categories.

The average adult requires approximately 8700 kilojoules (or 2080 calories) per day to maintain a healthy weight. This will vary depending on daily activity levels, age, height and current weight. There are various online tools and apps that can be utilised to keep track of daily kilojoule intake. Examples include MyFitnessPal and Foodswitch by Bupa. 

By law, food labels in Australia must display the number of kilojoules (and the breakdown that contributes to these kilojoules) the food item contains per 100g (or 100ml).  It is also common to see the amount of kilojoules 'per serving' with an estimated number of servings per packet size. 

As can be seen with this label, the manufacturer is claiming that there are 16 (30g) servings in the total packet. Each serving size is worth 432kj. If an individual consumes more than one of these servings they must multiply the number of kilojoules per serving by the number of servings they consume. In some products, it can be difficult to determine how many servings have been consumed without the use of scales.

Food labels also provide specific information about the various macronutrients such as protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Macronutrients are the main energy sources for the human body and must be consumed via food as the body does not naturally produce them. 

Other information contained on product labels includes:

• Fibre -  The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend that foods such as breads and cereals have at least 3g or more of fibre per serve. In the food label example above, the product has 6.4g or fibre per serve which puts it well within the recommended guidelines.

• Sodium (salt) - The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend that foods with less than 400mg per 100g are good and ideally they should be 120mg per 100g. In food label examples above, the product has 215mg of sodium per 100g making it good but not ideal. 

In addition to product labels, the Australian and New Zealand Food Standards website provides a searchable database of a wide range of food and beverages (including fresh foods) and provides nutritional information about them.

The template for adapting the Australia Guide for Healthy Eating can aid clients in making informed food choices by allowing them to visualise how the foods that they eat fit into the five food groups and helps them to plan which foods they should be eating more or less of.

The blank sections of the pie-chart allow clients to write or draw the various food items that they plan to purchase and/or consume in a day or week. The different-sized sections provide a visual reminder of the portion sizes that should be observed for each food group. The condiments and discretionary foods sections at the bottom of the pie-chart only allow a small space for writing items as these foods should be consumed sparingly if at all.

An interactive version of this template is available here.