Australian Dietary Guidelines (Feb 2013)

New Australian Dietary Guidelines were published on February 18th 2013. Hundreds of pages of information are available here. The main “Eat for health: Australian Dietary Guidelines” document alone is 226 pages.

The latest guidelines acknowledge the extent of the problem: “If current trends continue in Australia, it is estimated that by 2025, 83% of men and 75% of women aged 20 years or more will be overweight or obese.” (p12) This is also a tacit admission that the 2003 guidelines haven’t helped. So are the 2013 guidelines any better?

I am very familiar with the 2003 Australian Dietary Guidelines, as I analysed them in some detail in my 2010 book The Obesity Epidemic: What caused it? How can we stop it? Let’s look at the revised (2013) guidelines in comparison to the 2003 ones, to see if Australian advisors have come up with anything to change this predicted trajectory of obesity.

The three key guidelines

The dietary guidelines for Australians are set by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Like the USA guidelines, the Australian guidelines have the stated aim of promoting the potential benefits of healthy eating to reduce the risk of diet-related disease and also to improve the community’s health and wellbeing. The Australian government has been providing nutrition advice for more than 75 years. The 2003 document was the third edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Australian Adults. The second edition was published in 1992. The NHMRC has also published Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents and the Dietary Guidelines for Older Australians was published in 1999.

The three main pieces of advice in the 2003 dietary guidelines were:

1)     Enjoy a wide variety of nutritious foods:

–      Eat plenty of vegetables, legumes and fruits;

–      Eat plenty of cereals (including breads, rice, pasta and noodles), preferably whole grain;

–      Include lean meat, fish, poultry and/or alternatives;

–      Include milks, yoghurts, cheeses and/or alternatives. Reduced-fat varieties should be chosen, where possible;

–      Drink plenty of water.

2)     Take care to:

–      Limit saturated fat and moderate total fat intake;

–      Choose foods low in salt;

–      Limit your alcohol intake if you choose to drink;

–      Consume only moderate amounts of sugars and foods containing added sugars.

3)     Prevent weight gain: be physically active and eat according to your energy needs.

The three main pieces of advice in the 2013 dietary guidelines are:

Guideline 1: To achieve and maintain a healthy weight, be physically active and choose amounts of nutritious food and drinks to meet your energy needs.

Guideline 2: Enjoy a wide variety of nutritious foods from these five groups every day:

–      Plenty of vegetables, including different types and colours, and legumes/beans;

–      Fruit;

–      Grain (cereal) foods, mostly wholegrain and/or high cereal fibre varieties, such as breads, cereals, rice, pasta, noodles, polenta, couscous, oats, quinoa and barley;

–      Lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds, and legumes/beans;

–      Milk, yoghurt, cheese and/or their alternatives, mostly reduced fat (reduced fat milks are not suitable for children under the age of 2 years).

And drink plenty of water.

Guideline 3: Limit intake of foods containing saturated fat, added salt, added sugars and alcohol.

a) 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.

b) Limit intake of foods and drinks containing added salt.

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

d) 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.

The order has changed, and the 2013 guidelines are more verbose (I left some detail out), but that’s it. Nothing here will make a difference therefore.

The fundamental error

The 2013 guidelines spell out the fundamental error nicely for us with this extract (p16):

“The estimated Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges (AMDR) related to reduced risk of chronic disease are:

–      20–35% of total energy intake from fat;

–      45–65% from carbohydrate;

–      15–25% from protein.”

This basic lack of understanding about macronutrients (what we know as carbs, fat and protein) and what humans need in their food, is at the heart of the problem. Both sides of the nutritional debate would agree that protein intake of approximately 15-25% is healthy. The real food side would not worry if it went higher, but only as part of a natural intake of real food. Both sides would agree that unnaturally high levels of protein can be dangerous (they can deplete vitamin A and cause liver damage through excessive demands placed with protein metabolism).

Given that everything must add to 100%, if we agree on protein, the only debate we can have is over fat vs carbohydrate. Real foodies say “eat fat, fear carbs.” Dietary advisors say “eat carbs, fear fat.” Real food tends to be naturally high in fat (meat, fish, eggs, dairy, nuts, seeds, avocados, olives, oils etc). Fake food tends to be naturally high in carb (pasta, bread, cereals, and all wheat derivatives).

When fat was first demonised in the UK in the 1984 nutritional guidelines, it was fascinating to see the rationale positioned as – we don’t know that carbs are good, but we think that fat is bad and people need to eat something, so it needs to be carbs. The exact same rationale was given to me by the Food Standard Agency in 2009 when I wrote to them and asked why they recommended carbs over fat.

A basic understanding of human nutrition needs would confirm that the main part of our calorie need is to service what we call our Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) – the things that the body needs to do each day, even if we’re lying in bed all day and don’t move (i.e. when we don’t need energy to move).

An average woman, doing exercise 1-3 times a week, needs approximately 2,000 calories a day. Approximately 1,500 of these are for BMR needs – cell repair, fighting infection, building bone density, running the body etc. The macronutrients needed to do these jobs are fat and protein. Carbs, as dietary advisors love to tell us, are for energy. And that’s all they are for. Our average woman needs approximately 500 calories for energy. These can come in the form of fat or carbohydrate (the body will use protein if it has to, but as a last resort). So eating 100% of our intake in the form of fat and protein would meet 100% of our needs. Eating 100% of our intake in the form of carbohydrate would meet 25% of our needs. The remaining 75% of carbohydrate would be surplus to requirements. The body would not be able to use this for BMR and would store the carbohydrate as fat. That’s how we get fat and sick.

The Australian government is telling its citizens to eat 45-65% of their calorie intake in the form of carbohydrate. Ian Thorpe (if he still swims) may be able to use up this kind of energy intake. Your average Australian will not. The Australian government is making its citizens fat and sick with this one piece of advice alone.

Servings of carbohydrate

The amount of carbohydrate specifically recommended in the 2003 guidelines was quite spectacular. Pregnant women, breastfeeding women, women over the age of 60, men over the age of 60 all had individual and specific recommendations. The standard advice for women aged 19-60 (not pregnant or breastfeeding) and men aged 19-60 was as follows:

 

Women 19-60

Men 19-60

Cereals/grains

4-9 servings

6-12

Vegetables

5

5

Fruit

2

2

Dairy

2

2

Lean meat/fish/pulses

1

1

“Extra foods” (Junk basically)

0-2

0-3

Sample serves are:

–      Cereals/grains – 1 serving would be 2 slices (60 grams) bread, 1 cup cooked rice, pasta or noodles;

–      Vegetables – 1 serving would be 75 grams cooked vegetables, 1 cup salad vegetables, 1 small potato;

–      Fruit – 1 serving would be 1 medium piece (150 grams) of fruit, 1 cup diced pieces or canned fruit, 1 cup fruit juice;

–      Dairy – 1 serving would be 1 cup (250 millilitres) fresh milk, 2 slices (40 grams) cheese, 1 small carton (200 grams) yoghurt;

–      Lean meat/fish/pulses – 1 serving would be 65-100 grams cooked meat or chicken, 80-120 grams cooked fish fillet, 2 small eggs, 1 cup cooked pulses.

An Australian woman, following this 2003 optimally healthy eating advice, could eat 12 slices of bread, three cups of pasta, five small potatoes, two cups of fruit juice, a cup of cooked beans and two servings of junk food every day. This is a staggering amount and proportion of carbohydrate. If I ate a fraction of that, I would be fat in no time.

P39 of the 2003 NHMRC report actually spelled out how to ensure that Australian citizens consume this evolutionary unprecedented level of carbohydrate:

–     “Consume breads with each meal;

–      Regularly use rice, couscous, pasta or noodles to accompany hot dishes;

–      Eat breakfast cereals daily;

–      Include whole grain cereals as extenders to soups and casseroles;

–      Use oats in crumble toppings on desserts;

–      Choose grain-based snacks such as low-fat cereal bars, muffins and popcorn.”

Strewth! And Aussies wonder why they got fat!

The 2013 guidelines are little changed from these 2003 carbohydrate feast tips. The food groups have changed a little (beans and pulses mainly). The main adult category has been changed from 19-60 year olds to 19-50 year olds. Advice for the over 50s is for slightly fewer servings than the servings recommended for the 19-50 year olds.

–      Cereal and grain servings have been revised to be a minimum of 6 for both men and women aged 19-50, as opposed to the previous ranges of 6-12 for men and 4-9 for women.

–      Vegetable servings are now a minimum of 6 portions for men and 5 for women. Beans and pulses are now part of this vegetable group, however, so someone could have 5-6 portions of baked beans a day and tick the box.

–      Dairy has increased to a minimum of 2.5 servings a day – up from 2 servings a day. Dairy Australia is a partner of the Dieticians Association of Australia. Enough said!

–      Australian advisors have gone nuts for beans and pulses – they appear in both the vegetables category and in the lean meat/fish/pulses category. The servings in this latter group have gone up since the 2003 guidelines from 1 serving for men and women to a minimum of 3 servings for men and 2 for women.

Those minimums are inexplicable. While admitting that the country is heading towards 83% of men and 75% of women being overweight or obese within the next 10-15 years, minimum food intakes are being emphasised.

The Plate

Let’s finally look at the Australian summary diagram for ‘healthy’ eating. The 2003 plate can be seen here.

The 2013 plate is barely different.

The Australian plate was already better than the UK eatbadly plate for the following reasons: a) it had no implied brands – no cornflakes implying Kelloggs, no cola implying Coca-cola, no baked beans implying Heinz etc b) it had no junk segment – the junk is off the plate with the message “Only sometimes and in small amounts” and c) it separates fruit from vegetables, noting the significant difference between the two.

The 2013 Australian plate is clearer (not least just for being pictured head on and not at a 3D angle) and the grains segment seems to have been slightly reduced in favour of the vegetables/pulses segment, but the differences are tiny.

The bottom line is that Australians are still being told to base their meals on starchy foods – the exact substances that we used to know to be fattening. They still are fattening – we were not wrong about carbs. But our unfounded fear of fat has led to advice to eat carbs instead. It is our fear of fat that has made us fat and not fat itself.

17 thoughts on “Australian Dietary Guidelines (Feb 2013)

  • May 27, 2013 at 3:13 pm
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    Back in the mid 90’s I followed Rosemary Stanton’s so called “expert” advice for those in the “little activity, need to loose weight” (the lowest category)…recommended minimum amount of carbs of 225g, 35-40g fat, 40-55g protein per day. Despite increasing my activity significantly over the following years my weight increased from 80 to 110kg. I found no matter how hard I tried it was impossible to get really fit for some reason, I was sluggish, uncomfortable and felt like crap although I was eating lots of veges, carbs, grains. When I reached 110kg in 2012, I had had enough. My research led me to the “The Fat Revolution” book and “Nutrition for Kinesiologists” (course at Byron Bay), and what a revelation this all was! I discovered where my own “carb threshold” was and have so far shed 17kg in 9 months. Having regained control through a real education I can raise, stabilize, lower my “fat stores” as I choose. My body is now strong, dense and muscular due to swapping over to my preferred energy source to power my increased fitness over the last 12 months. It pays to self educate, follow your own instincts. I share my ongoing success through teaching my Kinesiology clients the same, and just let the results speak for themselves. There is an increasing awareness in the community as people “twig” for themselves as to what’s going on behind the scenes.

  • May 27, 2013 at 3:08 pm
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    Back in the mid 90’s I followed Rosemary Stanton’s so called “expert” advice for those in the “little activity, need to loose weight” (the lowest category)…recommended minimum amount of carbs of 225g, 35-40g fat, 40-55g protein per day. Despite increasing my activity significantly over the following years my weight increased from 80 to 110kg. I found no matter how hard I tried never get really fit for some reason, I was sluggish, uncomfortable and felt like crap although I was eating lots of veges, grains. When I reached 110kg in 2012, I had had enough. My research led me to the “The Fat Revolution” book and “Nutrition for Kinesiologists” (course at Byron Bay), and what a revelation this all was! I discovered where my own “carb threshold” was and have so far shed 17kg in 9 months. Having regained control through a real education I can raise, stabilize, lower my “fat stores” as I choose. My body is now strong, dense and muscular due to swapping over to my preferred energy source to power my increased fitness over the last 12 months. It pays to self educate, follow your own instincts. I teach my Kinesiology clients the same, and just let the results speak for themselves.

  • May 27, 2013 at 5:35 am
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    I am a dietitian myself. I graduated from a Master of Nutrition & Dietetics in the late 90’s. I clearly remember there was conflict at the time. The dietitian lecturers were promoting high carb/low saturated fat as they believed that the excess carbs not burnt up would be stored as glycogen in muscle tissue. On the other hand, the biochemists were claiming low carb as they tried to prove to us that all the excess Carb will get stored as fat, not as glycogen in muscle tissue. Having said that I have always been “under weight”. I eat EVERY REAL FOOD IN MODERATION. My kids & I DON’T EAT margarine (but avocado as a spread instead), soft drinks, cordial (water, fresh juice only), cows milk (Almond milk instead – only 1 variety has 120mg/100ml of calcium), lollies (nuts instead), sports/energy drinks (absolute rubbish), processed meat (nitrites & nitrates alone will kill you), artificial sweeteners or anything with preservatives, artificial colours or artificial flavours etc…apparently I’m depriving my kids. If that’s what it is I’m doing then I’ll continue to deprive them til the day I die! At least I know they’ll thank me when they can bear children (as I have done without an extra kg – if anything I actually weigh less than I did after having my 3rd child than I ever did!) How do U do it, people ask. I simply answer “I don’t eat shit!” It’s unbelievable how many foods are claimed to be natural – but read the food labels & you’ll see half the ingredients are rubbish! It’s so easy. If it’s REAL & NATURAL EAT IT. If it’s not, don’t eat it! Lastly exercise regularly – as they say “Use it or lose it!”

  • April 10, 2013 at 10:32 pm
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    Ralph:

    I think the authors of “Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me” and “Wrong! Why Experts Keep Failing Us” (two great books) address cognitive dissonance very well. Not solely in the nutritional and health domains, but in virtually every area of human interest (and personal interaction). What’s most amazing is that the same behaviors and mechanisms that affect us on an individual level also do so at an organizational level (and even at a national level).

    The subject of how something so wrong can become so deeply entrenched is a fascinating one and it’s obviously of great interest to those of us in the dietary and nutritional “counter culture.” I initially read these two books with health and nutrition in mind but was quite amazed at how pervasive the effects of cognitive dissonance can be in virtually every aspect of society.

  • April 4, 2013 at 8:13 pm
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    Why is there such uniformity in Western Governments’ dietary guidelines?

  • March 14, 2013 at 9:13 pm
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    I’d like to add another angle to this discussion. I’m a dietitian and some years ago, due to the personal experience of having a child with a weight problem, I was forced to re-evaluate what I was taught about nutrition. I practiced and preached less fat/ more carb for some years, until I realised that this type of diet did not suit my daughter and therefore probably not many others as well. 13 years ago she was diagnosed with insulin resistance and this was the starting point for a lot of research and trialling of different diet approaches. The science points to a lower carb intake as being the diet of choice for IR and Met Syn and it is the approach that I have used for many years with clients who fit the Met Syn profile. GPs who refer clients to me are supportive because of the results they have seen with clients, people who have been unable to lose weight with conventional low-fat diets are thrilled that they can do so and at the same time have more energy etc. However, despite the good results and the supporting science, I’ve recently found out that I could be at risk of losing one of my jobs because a lower carb/higher fat eating plan is not considered ‘best practice’. Ethically I cannot go back to recommending a lower fat/ higher carb diet to people with IR and Met Syn knowing that they have a problem metabolising carbs, so tricky situation to say the least.

  • March 12, 2013 at 4:46 pm
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    Thanks for recommending John Nicholson’s “The Meat Fix.” What an enjoyable and helpful book. It’s not often that something so informative also makes me laugh out loud.

  • March 7, 2013 at 8:51 am
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    I have eaten my bacon and eggs for the last two mornings with outrage, following two segments shown on Daybreak. I think it was yesterday that they were talking about the “alarming” rise in cases of (specifically) Type 2 diabetes. The woman hauled in from the British Diabetic Association actually said that not exercising is a cause of Type 2 diabetes. “We’re only asking that perhaps you walk to the shops instead of driving or catching the bus” she said, along with other pointless suggestions. Then, this morning, they had a “nutritionist”, some woman called Hornby. And she did it, alongside Dr Hilary, she said that we all need to cut down on our saturated fat intake. This was as part of a segment on how eating too many processed meats (in pies, sausages etc) can increase your risk of cancer, heart disease and so on. No mention of the carbohydrates contained in these processed products, or the additives used to preserve, stabilise and emulsify them. No. It’s purely the saturated fat in them that causes the problems. And with the Australians coming out with this, well, I start to despair!

  • March 7, 2013 at 8:46 am
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    Absolutely spot on! I had been gathering hard data so that I could confront our NHMRC about the utter stupidity of their recommendations on saturated fats versus carbs. I will still do this, but you have helped me greatly by setting out the guts of the situation. These guidelines will not make one iota of difference to the obesity/diabetes/CVD, etc problem in Australia. I am sick of paying taxes to fix up the problems caused by poison sellers such as the soft drink companies. Our Heart Foundation gets money from the margarine companies, so they are creating the problem they were set up to solve. Their jobs are secure! In our family, our fat intake is about 50% of kJ input, mostly from whole milk products,coconut oil, nuts and olive oil. The new guidelines lump coconut oil in with other saturated fats, yet the science says that lauric acid is uniquely beneficial in cutting inflammation, and saturated fats are essential for the conversion of ALA to DHA.

  • March 6, 2013 at 10:24 am
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    I feel so frustrated and cross that this information is being given out. The medical professions here and abroad need to to stop being so arrogant and perhaps look at the trend. Why on earth do they think that the NHS has gone down in world rankings for health etc? It’s ALL to do with what we are feeding ourselves and our children. Italy, France Spain etc all smoke and drink more than us in UK(perhaps their binge drinking isn’t so bad yet!) BUT they eat olive oil and plenty of fresh foods.
    What can be done Zoe? Is there anything that us ordinary mortals can do? It’s really quite frightening.

    • March 8, 2013 at 10:58 am
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      Hi Annabel – us ordinary mortals can do what you’re doing – ignore their advice and spread the word about real food. I can’t see governments changing their advice (they would have to admit they were wrong and the conflicts of interest run deep). It is for us greater mortals to take our health into our own hands and be part of an underground revolution. When doctors and dieticians realise that everyone is ignoring their advice they may rethink! Some have already and their voices are really helping us revolutionaries – Dr Eades, Dr Briff, Dr Malhotra etc.
      Very best wishes – Zoe

  • February 28, 2013 at 1:03 am
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    Wow! Maybe Australia will overtake America in obesity. What’s the definition of insanity again? doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

  • February 27, 2013 at 11:30 pm
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    Ex fat Aussie here – I attribute that I never became obese/dead to the fact that I was a first world anarchist and ignored the guidelines mostly, steak and eggs and bacon were too delicious and made me feel so good, so it was sheer arrogance that I based my diet on these. However now and then I was browbeaten by the authorities and so included bread and pasta and hearthealthywholegrain foods to offset the critical damage I was doing with all that arterycloggingsaturatedfat.

    So yeah, I spent about a decade being 15-20kg overweight with no clue why, assuming it was all the meat and fat just like they said, but I felt like crap when I didn’t eat them. Two years ago I went 90% carnivore with a smattering of veggies now and then, 15kg disappeared seemingly overnight, and I feel more invincible now in my late 30’s than I did in my early 20’s.

    I’m just glad I never actually gave up the foods I love and need (fatty meat), but kinda pissed I spent all that time eating the crap everyone says is good for you, therefore keeping me in a constant feeling of meh.

    • February 28, 2013 at 8:47 am
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      LOL Ash! Have you read The Meat Fix by John Nicholson? Sounds like you could have written it ;-)
      Very best wishes – Zoe

  • February 27, 2013 at 3:19 pm
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    bulls-eye! :-D i copied and pasted the paragraph which begins with “an average woman” with a link to this article on FB.

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