Daily Intake Guide: Healthy eating, made easy. Front-of-pack labelling for food and drink in Australia. - Daily Intake Levels (2024)

FAQs

What is the Australian guide for healthy eating? ›

The Australian guide to healthy eating is a food selection guide which visually represents the proportion of the five food groups recommended for consumption each day.

Australian and New Zealand dietary guidelines suggest that adults should gain 45 to 65 percent of their total energy intake from carbohydrates, which is about 230 to 310 grams per day.

On average, women should have around 2,000 calories a day (8,400 kilojoules) and men should have around 2,500 calories a day (10,500 kilojoules). We all need different amounts of energy (or calories) from food to be a healthy weight. How much you need depends on lots of things, including how active you are.

fruit. grain (cereal) foods, mostly wholegrain and/or high fibre varieties, such as breads, cereals, rice, pasta, noodles, polenta, couscous, oats, quinoa and barley. lean meats and alternatives and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts, seeds and legumes/beans.

Designed as an essential navigational and rating accomplice, the Australian Good Food & Travel Guide has long been acknowledged as Australia's most comprehensive restaurant, accommodation and travel authority encompassing not only all major metropolitan areas but many of the smaller townships that lie in between.

Foods are grouped together because they provide similar amounts of the key nutrients of that food group. For example, the key nutrients of the milk, yogurt, cheese and alternatives food group include calcium and protein, while the fruit group is a good source of vitamins, especially vitamin C.

Evidence suggests Australians need to eat less:

red meats (adult males only) food and drinks high in saturated fat, added sugar, added salt, or alcohol (e.g. fried foods, most take-away foods from quick service restaurants, cakes and biscuits, chocolate and confectionery, sweetened drinks).

How many grams of fat should you be consuming? Total Fat: Your total daily fat intake should make up 20-35% of your total calories. This is equivalent to 44-78g of fat for those following a 2000-calorie diet.

Approximate protein requirements

Adult women: 0.75g/kilogram of body weight/day. Adult men: 0.84g/kilogram of body weight/day. People who are pregnant, breastfeeding or over 70 years old: 1g/kilogram of body weight/day.

What should your daily food intake look like? ›

eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day (see 5 A Day) base meals on higher fibre starchy foods like potatoes, bread, rice or pasta. have some dairy or dairy alternatives (such as soya drinks) eat some beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other protein.

A clenched fist is about 1 cup — and that's the amount experts recommend for a portion of pasta, rice, cereal, vegetables, and fruit. A meat portion should be about as big as your palm. Limit the amount of added fats (like butter, mayo, or salad dressing) to the size of the top of your thumb.

Lunch at an Australian pub is called a counter lunch, while the term counter meal is used for either lunch or dinner. Common dishes served at counter lunches and counter meals are steak and chips, chicken parmigiana and chips, a mixed grill (an assortment of grilled meats), and roast lamb or beef with roast vegetables.

Guideline 2

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.

The Healthy Food Partnership Reformulation Program aims to reduce the amount of sugar, sodium and saturated fat in processed and manufactured foods. Eat for Health contains the Australian Dietary Guidelines, tips and advice on eating healthy, and resources to help people make healthy food choices.

The Healthy Eating Pyramid is a simple visual guide to the types and proportion of foods that we should eat every day for good health. It contains the five core food groups, plus healthy fats, according to how much they contribute to a balanced diet based on the Australian Dietary Guidelines (2013).

Drink plenty of water. To achieve and maintain a healthy weight, be physically active and choose amounts of nutritious food and drinks to meet your energy needs. Children and adolescents should eat sufficient nutritious foods to grow and develop normally.

This model is consistent with the key messages of Nutrition Australia's Healthy Eating Pyramid. Both models provide very similar information – simply presented in a different format. The plate model represents the proportion of foods from each of the 5 food groups we should be eating across the day.