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Government dietary guidelines are under attack by those who claim they’ve caused the rapid rise in obesity in the past forty years. Dietitian Matt O’Neill asks, could this be true?
The first Australian dietary guidelines were published in 1982 to guide nutrition advice, education and policy.
The aim was to help reduce diet-related disease, which was starting to increase dramatically. What were the recommendations, how have they changed and who is following them?
The 1982 guidelines included eight recommendations:
Fast forward over thirty years for the most recent Australian version, the Australian Dietary Guidelines 2013 containing five recommendations:
Current Australian guidelines, which are now five years old, include these notable changes:
For dietary guidelines to be implicated in causing obesity, people would need to be following the recommendations closely. And this may not be the case.
The Australian Health Survey 2011-12 revealed that only 6.8% of adults (fewer than one in ten) eat the recommended five serves of vegetables a day, and that over one third (35%) of total calories are provided by ‘discretionary foods’ (otherwise known as junk foods).
The Australian guidelines above seem to be presenting reasonable recommendations, so what if people actually followed them?
There are several additional questions about dietary guidelines that fuel hot debate.
Get involved in the debate by attending the Dietary Guidelines Reimagined Online Event (live and recorded) 11am, Thursday 15 February 2018. Hosted by the SmartShape Centre for Weight Management, you can SAVE $10 with the coupon code ‘SS10OFF’ when registering HERE.
Matt O’Neill, Dietitian BSpSc, MSc(Nut&Diet), APD, AN is director of the SmartShape Centre for Weight Management and creator of the Metabolic Jumpstart nutrition system. metabolicjumpstart.com
ARTICLE CREDIT * This article was taken from the Australian Fitness Network.