With the Australian dietary guidelines due for an update, new recommendations are now being drafted and will be published in 2024. These guidelines provide a holistic framework for improving our nutrition. They tell us not just what foods to eat, but that we should be focusing on variety, moderation and a whole food approach to health. According to Dr. Jessica Danaher, a dietitian and nutrition scientist at RMIT University, that’s what makes these guidelines so important. They are intended to guide and inform, not as formulaic directives to constrain creativity.
The current Australian Guide to Healthy Eating plate divides foods into five essential groups: vegetables, fruit, grains, protein, and dairy. This tool is an evidence-based and science-backed guide to help Australians eat well and live well. Dr. Danaher emphasizes that it’s not meant to tell you what to eat for every meal. Rather, it gives us a blueprint for how to achieve going beyond the plate, to a more balanced diet.
Understanding the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating
Dr. Danaher disputes the notion that the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating is a strict guideline.
“It’s called the Australian guide to healthy eating, not the Australian rule book to healthy eating.” – Dr. Danaher
This dietary recommendation urges people to move beyond the limitations of the food pyramid toward eating a colorful, abundant diet rich in fruits and vegetables. If you are 9 years and older, try to consume a minimum of two servings of fruit per day. In addition, be sure to eat at least five vegetable-based meals each day! The guidelines further recommend restricting discretionary foods to no more than two serves a day.
“Realistically, with real-world, everyday eating, people have things like travel and social events, appetite, your time, what you’re able to eat between work commitments, cost, availability and even stress playing a big role.” – Dr. Danaher
By encouraging moderation and variety, the guidelines are designed to provide Australians with simple, practical advice so they can choose healthier foods in ways that fit into their lives.
Global Perspectives on Dietary Guidelines
The next edition will, for the first time, align with global trends of dietary recommendations toward a more plant-predominant diet. Most recently, Denmark released national dietary guidelines in 2020 focusing on how to eat in a climate-friendly and plant-rich manner. This new move to greater environmental focus in dietary guidelines offers a glimpse of what may be included in future Australian dietary guidelines.
In 2019, the EAT-Lancet Commission first proposed a planetary health diet. They suggest that people limit their intake of red meat, including processed variants, to no more than 98 grams per week. This recommendation is in step with the shifting conversation toward public health and environmental sustainability.
Norway’s guidelines take a different approach by encouraging individuals to “eat with pleasure and make time to sit down and eat.” They claim to prioritize pleasurable eating experiences, but they ignore the need for healthier and more sustainable environments.
The Need for Holistic Health Approaches
This would be a huge step in the right direction, having dietary guidelines reflect a more holistic understanding of what health means, says Dr. Danaher.
“We may be shifting towards looking at health from a more holistic perspective as opposed to just looking at the clinical perspective or nutritional adequacy.” – Dr. Danaher
This changing mindset should inform recommendations that more closely align with the everyday lives and struggles of Americans.
Yet, as Dr. Danaher notes, figuring out what even qualifies as a serving of discretionary foods can be confusing. In practice, this complexity creates a confusing environment for average citizens.
“One quarter of a pie at the footy is a serve of discretionary foods, so my whole pie is doubling the daily recommendations.” – Dr. Danaher
In the most entertaining way possible, she breaks down the realities that you can splurge on sweets from time to time. It’s the dietary patterns that count, not strict daily limits.
“But I’m not going to eat half my pie and chuck it in the bin and go, ‘Oh, I’ve met my pie limit for today’.” – Dr. Danaher
Instead, the guidelines should set an example of promoting healthy, sustainable eating patterns across the lifespan. Yet they should not solely focus on short-term intake.
