Healthy Eating Pyramid – Nutrition Australia
The new Healthy Eating Pyramid, based on the 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines, has been released by Nutrition Australia.
1. Bottom Layers of Healthy Eating Pyramid:
The largest proportion of the healthy eating pyramid consists of vegetables and legumes, fruits and grains. These foods should make up the majority of our diet and should be broken down as follows for teens and adults:
Fruit – aim for 2 serves per day
Vegetables and Legumes – aim for 5 serves per day
CHANGE: fruits, vegetables and legumes represent a greater proportion of the pyramid.
Grains – choose predominantly wholegrains rather than processed white varieties, such as brown rice, wholemeal and wholegrain bread, pasta and crackers.
CHANGE: increased focus on quality of the carbohydrate rather than quantity.
2. Middle Layers of the Healthy Eating Pyramid:
The middle of the pyramid is made up of protein containing foods – dairy and alternatives, lean meat, fish, eggs, nuts and seeds.
Dairy (milk, cheese and yoghurt) provide the main dietary sources of calcium. This group includes fortified non dairy alternatives, such as rice milk or soy milk and where possible choose reduced fat options.
Lean meats, fish, nuts, legumes and eggs provide the main dietary source of protein and are also a valuable source of iron, vitamin B12 and zinc.
3. Top Layer of the Healthy Eating Pyramid:
The smallest portion of the healthy eating pyramid is healthy fats.
Healthy fats are essential to our diet to ensure that fat soluble vitamins are absorbed, but need to be used sparingly. Healthy fats refer to mono- and poly-unsaturated fats as opposed to saturated fats or trans fats. Extra virgin olive oil, nut and seed based oils are suitable healthy fats to choose.
Water, herbs and spices are encouraged in the new edition of the healthy pyramid.
CHANGE: the ‘extras’ group has been removed completely. This group previously contained foods such as chocolate, ice cream, biscuits, chips, etc.
**Remember: Enjoy a variety of foods, from every group, every day.**
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